Monday, September 24, 2007 Captain to quit for City’s help
PUNTA Engaño Barangay Captain Angel Rodriguez has offered to quit his position if Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza can help at least 500 poor constituents in need of socialized housing.
Angel Rodriguez said the “cry” for a resettlement site was first made nearly a decade ago, but until now the mayor has shown no signs of hearing it. Rodriguez is a former political ally of the mayor.
“I’d like to make a trade. If he can give us a relocation site, I’ll quit as barangay captain of Punta Engaño,” said Rodriguez. “I am not bluffing, nor am I pushed by a personal motive as he and his minions have charged.”
Radaza, for his part, said he is considering a housing site in Barangay Canjulao, where a 24-hectare “new town development estate” will be developed before his terms ends.
He refused to comment on Rodriguez’s offer, pointing out that the barangay election is weeks away and it is up to the people to decide who should lead Punta Engaño.
Before the May 14 election, Sta. Lucia Property Ventures offered a sharing scheme on the cost of developing a portion of its property in Punta Engaño.
Radaza’s refusal to sign the “advantageous” memorandum of agreement (MOA) broke his alliance with Rodriguez.
Rodriguez had been the first barangay captain to declare full support for Radaza during his first electoral face-off with the late mayor Ernest Weigel Jr. Radaza won by a landslide in Punta Engaño in the 2001 and 2004 elections, a feat credited to the barangay captain.
The residents’ housing problem has changed all that.
“I give up. The favor I asked was not for me because I am not the kind of person to beg. It was for my and his constituents in Punta Engaño. What was so difficult, when all he had to do was sign the MOA with Sta. Lucia?” Rodriguez said.
The first relocation site Rodriguez suggested to Radaza was estimated to cost P8 million. Sta. Lucia, however, came up with its own offer to develop 20 hectares of its property, for as long as City Hall would share the costs.
The firm would shoulder about P3 million, while City Hall’s counterpart would be P2.5 million.
But Radaza did not accept.
When he was served with a six-month preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas—in connection with the purchase of allegedly overpriced lampposts—Rodriguez convinced acting Mayor Norma Patalinjug to sign the MOA.
That effort went to naught. When Radaza won the May 14 election, the MOA was not given due course under his administration.
Because of his “disgust” with Radaza, Rodriguez said, he refused to join the educational tour in Hong Kong with the other 28 barangay captains.
“What the City spent on that tour could have paid for the relocation site,” the barangay captain said. (AIV)
