Tuesday, November 28, 2006 1T Lahug residents seek mayor’s help
BRINGING the sentiments of more than 1,000 Barangay Lahug residents, urban poor leaders asked Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to negotiate in their behalf with Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia on the land swap deal.
The residents told the mayor at his office yesterday that they want him to handle the land swapping issue, and not their barangay captain, Mary Ann de los Santos, since they have lost their trust and confidence on her.
The urban poor leaders led by the mayor’s urban poor consultant, Gerry Marquez, gave Osmeña copies of their letter and position paper signed by over 1,000 of the 5,000 beneficiaries of Provincial Ordinance 93-1 in Lahug alone.
“Dia mi diri karon mayor kay ikaw among tagaan ug sole authority sa pag negotiate sa gobernador. Kay ikaw man ang amahan sa siyudad, ikaw ang among tagaan mayor ug dili ang among kapitan. (We are here because we want you to have sole authority to negotiate with the governor. You are the father of the city),” Maximo Caballes of Sitio Kamagong, Lahug told Osmeña.
“Okay then, I will take charge,” Osmeña assured the leaders.
The urban poor leaders said the residents voluntarily signed the position paper and no one was forced into affixing their signature.
Check signatures
But in Lahug, de los Santos said the authenticity of the signatures should be checked since some of the signatories are already dead while the others were not present during the meeting when the position paper was passed around.
She welcomed the signature campaign but if the mayor is really sincere in helping her constituents, there should be no conditions or politics attached to his intervention, the baragay captain said.
“As barangay captain, the mayor can never shut me out of the negotiations. I will continue to help my constituents as long as I am their barangay captain. If he doesn’t want me to get involved, fine. But he can never stop me from helping my constituents,” de los Santos told Sun.Star Cebu.
She further said that she welcomes any personality who is willing to help the residents acquire the Province-owned lots they are occupying, but they should not have been made to choose who should help.
“Letting the people choose between the mayor and myself is just very childish and immature,” added de los Santos, who is identified with the opposition.
In his news conference after the meeting with the residents, the mayor said he will be happy to help those who asked him to gain ownership of the lots they are occupying, but the rest will just have to rely on delos Santos.
In Kamagong, only 280 of its more than 340 beneficiaries signed the position paper authorizing the mayor to handle the negotiation with Capitol.
“We’ll help them, at least 281 of them. The other 60, we’ll let them settle their own problems. Let Mary Ann save them. I presume those who did not sign want Mary Ann to endorse them so we will not include them,” Osmeña said.
Promise
In their letter to the mayor, the residents said they did not want de los Santos to meddle because the latter failed to deliver promises she made shortly before the elections in 2004.
“Kami dili ganahan na ang among barangay captain ang mopataliwala ug motabang kanamo kay kami wala nay pagsalig niya kay sa nilabay nga election, siya nipasalig namo nga adunay extension sa pagbayad apan ang maong pagsalig wala gayod matuman. (We no longer trust the barangay captain. During the elections, she assured us we would get an extension to complete the payment but this did not happen),” they said. (LCR)
