Friday, June 27, 2008 Roperos: Miserable Lapu-Lapu By Godofredo M. Roperos Politics Also
TODAY, Lapu-Lapu City is inviting investors to a night in its honor. According to a business reporter-friend, foreign and local investors have been invited to the Marquee of Shangrila’s Mactan Resort and Spa. There, they are supposed to be introduced to the beauty and warmth of Lapu-Lapu’s historical, cultural, and environmental spots.
Lapu-Lapu appears to me, however, to be miserable and probably “dying” of boredom, which is really not through a fault of its own. It is just unfortunate that it is caught in the “crossfire” of battling conflicting interests between a profit-motivated, self-styled honest businessman and a politics survival-oriented city mayor.
Despite this miserable situation, it is surprising that, as we have pointed out in an earlier column, the city won an award as the second most business-friendly city in the Philippines next only to Taguig. The survey was sponsored by highly respectable global organizations such as the World Bank, Asian Institute of Management, the governments of Australia, Canada, and our own Department of Trade and Industry.
To what might this success be attributed? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
But yesterday, I saw in this daily a full page ad by the Sangguniang Panglungsod of Lapu-Lapu “congratulating the honorable City Mayor Arturo Radaza for providing leadership that enabled Lapu-Lapu to achieve the No. 2 rank as most business friendly city in the entire Philippines.” Will this be enough to prove that Radaza, despite the critics’ contrary views, is a good mayor?
But then, his critics claim that he has overpriced his purchase of computers and is also involved in the overpriced lamppost scam bought for the Asean summit here early last year. But some city officials, who may be parties to the city’s alleged corruption, had also filed counter charges against the businessman for allegedly bribery under the administration of former mayor Ernest Weigel.
The case is supported with affidavits from the former mayor’s widow and their son. The case was filed with the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas. It alleges that the businessman got the support of Mayor Weigel in constructing a building on a city property, which later was said to be illegal.
The other charges include the businessman’s alleged abuse of his being a volunteer of the city’s Ombudsman Anti-graft Watch Unit, using its logo to inquire into the status of his competitors and business rivals. Oh, when will the case ever end?
