Thursday, November 08, 2007 Espinoza: Radaza’s reclamation project plan By Elias L. Espinoza Free Zone
LAPU-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza wants to implement a gargantuan reclamation project covering the barangays of Ibo, Buaya, Mactan and Punta Engaño. He plans to begin work on the billion-peso project before he bows out of office in 2010.
Skeptics think, though, that this is just another money-making venture of the City Government that will benefit some suspicious pockets and not the city’s residents.
Before embarking on an ambitious project, Radaza, who is facing graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas, should first look into the state of his city.
Residents complain of unlighted, bad or unfinished streets. A road widening and concreting project in Basak that is still to be completed is a good example of this neglect. This has caused traffic congestion during peak hours.
Another problem that perhaps only few people know is that some of the city’s streets have no names and houses are without numbers, making it difficult to deliver mail or to serve legal documents.
So mayor, why initiate a very ambitious project when there are more pressing matters that you and your City Council should attend to in order to improve services as well as enhance the city’ condition?
I don’t even think the City has enough money to fund a reclamation project. In fact, Radaza is seeking financial assistance from President Arroyo.
If the mayor will pursue the project, Lapu-Lapu will possibly become another Cebu City, which is paying millions of pesos in interest every month for its South Road Properties. I pity the taxpayers.
Besides, there is a pending legal issue surrounding this project. This was the same project that the late former mayor Jun Weigel started but which got stalled for undisclosed reasons.
According to my source, the project was bidded out and awarded to the winning bidder, a big Makati-based construction company. Feasibility and environmental impact studies were already completed and the firm had spent a lot of money for the project.
Radaza must have been ill-advised. His advisers are probably only looking at the huge profit they would make on the side when reclamation work finally starts.
If the mayor does not want to be pushed into the limelight again for dubious reasons and face more graft cases, he should require the winning bidder to proceed with the reclamation project while he focuses his energy on improving the city’s services.
*** The New Oxford Dictionary defines junket as “extravagant trip or celebration, in particular one enjoyed by a government official at public expense.” Encarta dictionary defines it as, “a trip taken at somebody else's expense, especially one taken by a politician at public expense.”
I wonder where Rep. Tony Cuenco got his definition of the said word when he denied that his numerous foreign trips were junkets. I suppose he was not playing with semantics when he was interviewed by a Sun.Star reporter.
Cuenco’s trip may be official but still the funds used for it were public money. He topped the list of “jetsetter-lawmakers” having spent P1,294,058.05 for his trips.
I am not saying Cuenco should be condemned for wasting taxpayer’s money. He should be commended for performing legislative work even in foreign land.
He was the lone Cebuano lawmaker that made it to the list of top “jetsetter-lawmakers” as noted by the Commission on Audit. Figures don’t lie.
