Monday, August 15, 2005
Sienes: The raging SP war
By Cris G. Sienes
Different Strokes
"Let us hope, though, that this raging SP war is not some kind of a smokescreen to cover the issue on the mulcting city councilors so that the public will eventually forget all about it."
IT SEEMS that the City Council never runs out of intrigues and controversies. Only recently the issue on the mulcting city councilors rocked the body like a magnitude 9 earthquake. The aftershocks of the issue had barely subsided when a full-blown war among the city councilors shook the city council anew. All is not well in the city council. Our city councilors are a fractious and divisive lot.
So far it has only been a word war, a war of suspicions and counter suspicions, of charges and countercharges. But should the war be a long-drawn one, it could leave the city council in shambles to the detriment of the city and the city residents.
The battle lines have been drawn and the protagonists identified. Two inimical groups of city councilors are locked in the bitter world war. One group is headed by former majority floorleader Victorio Advincula, although he has not been very talkative lately, the other by Vice-Mayor Luis Bonguyan who looks like he's in a fighting mood.
The Advincula group includes Councilors Danny Dayanghirang, Dado Mahipus, Nilo Abellera, Nenita Orcullo and probably Pilar Braga and Paz Mata. The rest of the city councilors are with Bonguyan. With this development, unless the Advincula group can alienate more city councilors away from the Bonguyan group, it would become the minority in the city council and that of Bonguyan the majority. This would place the Advincula group at a great disadvantage.
Advincula is already out as majority floorleader. How swift the wheel of political fortune spins! Back to the word war at the city council. What triggered it? What's it all about? Political spoils? The usual backing and filling for political convenience?
In a press conference held at the Mandaya Hotel, the Advincula group accused Bonguyan and some city councilors of massive corruption. The charge sheet, read by Dayanghirang, contained an 11-point litany of the alleged sins of Bonguyan and some city councilors.
The litany of charges included the allegedly overpriced and defective SP roofdeck; lobbying for the purchase of some hectares of land owned by a relative; soliciting money from an oil company seeking clearance to put up an oil depot in Sasa; influencing city councilors to grant clearance for an illegal offshore reclamation project at Times Beach; brokering for the approval of a giant developer's sprawling subdivision project with insufficient drainage; hiring and paying an unauthorized engineer to conduct structural tests on the SP building to the tune of P150,000 and a few others.
When informed of the charges hurled at them by the Advincula group, Bonguyan and the city councilors accused quickly denied them and immediately came up with explanations and justifications for their actions.
But members of the Advincula group said that they are preparing affidavits and documentary evidence preparatory to the filing of a case against Bonguyan and the city councilors concerned with the office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao. If they can make their charges stick, then Bonguyan and the accused city councilors are cooked geese.
Obviously angered by the accusations of the Advincula group, Bonguyan hurled words to the effect that if Advincula and his group want war, they'll get it. So the war at the city council rages.
This bears watching, particularly in anticipation of city councilors washing their dirty linens in public. This might be a good cleansing process for the city council.
Let us hope, though, that this raging SP war is not some kind of a smokescreen to cover the issue on the mulcting city councilors so that the public will eventually forget all about it. Lest people forget, mulcting by some notorious councilors is the crux of the matter, the real issue that triggered the current conflict.
Point to ponder: "Many people go through life committing partial suicide--destroying their talents, energies, creative qualities. Indeed, to learn how to be good to oneself is often more difficult than to learn how to be good to others." (Joshua Loth Liebman: Peace of Mind)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (August 15, 2005 issue)
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