Thursday, June 07, 2007 Tomas imposes condition on Mary Ann for Lahug school building to be built By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña will pursue the construction of a school building in Barangay Lahug anytime, but only if Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos admits that she “lied” to her constituents.
“It’s very simple. She just has to acknowledge her lies, then we’ll build the school now. We gave that project for the children and she says she doesn’t know about it? Asa ka?” he told a news conference yesterday.
Several other projects are lined up for Lahug, including a day care center and a drainage system, and Osmeña said these will not suffer the same fate as the school building “unless Mary Ann asks for it.”
For the mayor, de los Santos’ apology to those she may have hurt during the campaign, which was made before the media, is not enough and was just a publicity stunt.
But de los Santos is firm on her stand. She said in a phone interview yesterday that the mayor might as well shoot her, as she is not willing to give in to his condition.
“He can never dictate to me what to do just to pass on the pressure to me now that his pronouncements have backfired.
Nagkabuang na na siya’g yawyaw just to save face because he knows very well that I can build the school without his help, and he’s scared of that. Maayo pa na iya na lang kong pusilon rather than compromise my principles,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.
De los Santos further said that she will never take back her statements that Osmeña did not give Lahug projects, which she wrote in a letter distributed during the campaign.
“As far as I am concerned, there are no projects because he did not observe protocol and did not inform the barangay of any ongoing project. I cannot account for all his projects kay wala man niagi nako. Wala man siya’y batasan... he wants me to acknowledge his projects when he didn’t even acknowledge me as barangay captain,” she said.
Postponed
An irate Osmeña decided to put off until 2008 the construction of a building in the Lahug Elementary School after getting a copy of the letter written by de los Santos, telling her constituents that the City Government did not give Lahug projects “in any manner.”
At 10 a.m. tomorrow, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia will officially turn over a P5-million check to de los Santos, which represents the Province’s donation to the barangay’s “Piso Mo, Eskwelahan Ko” project.
The mayor’s education consultant, Joy Augustus Young, briefed the City Council yesterday afternoon on the mayor’s reason for suspending the construction of the school building.
Young and Vice Mayor Michael Rama said there was nothing the council agreed on, and that the councilors will just take it up with the mayor. They had a scheduled meeting last night.
In his news conference yesterday, Osmeña said he can justify the cost of the proposed P15-million school building, which Vice Gov. Greg Sanchez said is “quite high.”
Unlike schools in the province, which are usually single-story buildings, schools in the city are multiple-story buildings that cost more to construct, the mayor added.
