Thursday, September 20, 2007 Talk back: Two letter-writers defending Radaza By Efrain T. Pelaez Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry
THIS is in response to two letters that appeared in Sun.Star’s Talk Back last Sept. 14, 2007, ostensibly from the same Lapu-Lapu City Hall source but sent by two different individuals, a Mr. Edwin Ymbong of Pajo, and a Mr. Ernesto Ygot of Ibo.
My information is that they are both connected in some way with Mayor Boy Radaza, which can only mean they have added their names to the list of his apologists.
What is curious is that the letters have similar grammar and syntax and even use common words. I would like to meet both of them some day to see if they indeed can speak and write in English in very much the same way on an impromptu basis.
Also, Mr. Ygot seems to know the details of the letters I wrote to city officials.
For example, I wrote Radaza, on behalf of the Mactan Chamber and the Barug Filipino/Dilaab of Fr. Carmelo Diola, asking for the schedule of the public biddings. Ombudsman Director Virginia Santiago had earlier suggested we join to observe the bidding process in Lapu-Lapu and Cordova.
After three weeks, I still have to receive a reply. Now, we have Mr. Ygot ranting that I am asking for this information on a silver platter. What is wrong with a simple letter request that demands a reply befitting a chief executive?
The Sitoys responded by inviting me to the Suroy Suroy sa Cordova, but I have not been invited to any Suroy Suroy sa Basurahan in Lapu-Lapu.
Ygot also refers to a letter I wrote to Vice Mayor Mario Amores with a similar request for the Chamber to observe the City Council sessions. He then said that all I have to do is go to the City Hall on Wednesdays!
I did receive a very professional and cordial letter from Amores welcoming our group to the sessions, which is the proper response. We wrote him to give him the courtesy, as presiding officer of the Council, so we will be on cooperative rather than confrontational footing.
Why Ygot is so upset, I do not know. It is not even his business.
Ygot also reinterpreted and twisted my facts and intentions. I do not have to dignify his ululations. It is deliberate disinformation from a polluted source.
I stand by what I said. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have done my part as an investor and contributed to community development in Mactan. I have not claimed credit for anything other than what I personally have been involved in.
I have also written the City Attorney and City Accountant recently. Would Mr. Ygot like to comment on that too?
But honestly, why do we not just agree to have Radaza defend his own record? Let us invite Radaza to an open forum and let him speak for himself in the language or dialect of his choice.
The Chamber, Dilaab, Cebu Business Club, several Rotary Clubs, Coalition vs. Corruption and other church and cause-oriented groups will surely help organize such a televised event and listen to the man himself without his lawyers and propagandists.
We can bring a stack of Bibles to swear on, lie detectors machines to verify the truth, and videotape to memorialize the event.
We will be glad to hear about his accomplishments of the last six years and how the enormous budget of Lapu-Lapu has been spent during the same period. He can start with the lamp posts, the job orders, the clean and green programs and then, the reasons why so many cases are pending in the Ombudsman’s office.
At the end of it all, the issues are still the same whatever the smear. What do we do about the garbage, the squatters, the environment, the corruption, the tong collection, the disrepair, the lack of basic services and other issues?
That is the same big question asked repeatedly by our Chamber, and so far we still have not received a truthful and satisfactory reply from Radaza, only personal attacks and insults, mostly from sycophants.
