Friday, June 06, 2008
Tom bars opposition bry. chiefs
OPPOSITION bara-ngay captains will not be allowed to sell the government-subsidized rice that Cebu City Hall will distribute, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said yesterday.
Osmeña, however, said the rice will reach the urban poor in all 80 barangays.
Osmeña said yesterday that City Hall personnel will be the ones to sell the National Food Authority (NFA) rice in the barangays whose officials are not allied with Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).
In Lahug, Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos will only be allowed to watch the distribution, he said.
“Mary Ann will not get her hands on this. She keeps saying that I’ve not done anything for her barangay? Then we’ll make her dreams come true. We will bring rice there
but she can’t sell, she can just watch,” Osmeña told reporters.
NFA rice
City Hall is expecting sacks of NFA rice to be delivered anytime soon to be sold in the different barangays.
In a phone interview yesterday, de los Santos said it does not matter how the mayor will distribute the government-subsidized rice as long as these would reach the poor constituents of Lahug and other opposition barangays.
The Genuine Opposition claims to be allied with the barangay captains of Pardo, Cogon-Ramos, Duljo Fatima, Pasil, Buot Taup, Calamba, San Nicolas Proper, Sambag 1 and Lahug.
De los Santos, who ran against Osmeña in the May 2007 elections, said she will welcome City Hall employees who will distribute the rice in her barangay.
CH employees
“If he has the luxury of manpower, I don’t care as long as he will not shut off Lahug. Bisag si Mayor Osmeña pa mismo ang mamaligya it doesn’t matter. Ako pa siyang paandaman ug stall,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.
At City Hall, the NFA initially delivered 25 sacks of rice intended to be purchased by City Government employees.
Osmeña said the NFA allowed City Hall employees to buy directly from the NFA but he canceled the arrangement.
“The accounting office already got 25 sacks. I’m not going to get it back but I’m not in favor of doing that again in the future. I think it’s in bad taste that government
workers get special treatment over the public,” he told a news conference.
He added, though, that he will not stop the city employees from buying NFA rice in the barangays once City Hall starts distributing them. (LCR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 6, 2008 issue)
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