Tuesday, August 07, 2007 Ledesma: What's up in Davao del Norte By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
THE return of Cabinet Secretary Rodolfo del Rosario to Davao del Norte as governor was not an easy decision. As a background there was this convoluted political climate in the province. The incumbent governor Gelacio "Yayong" Gementiza wants a re-election amidst the clamor of Lakas-CMD leadership to field RDR's son Anthony, the vice governor, for the top provincial post.
Yayong, who was confident to bag the Boholano votes, was not happy with the party decision. When the first opportunity presented itself he joined the Genuine Opposition Party (of Jejomar Binay) and was quickly sworn in by Ernesto Maceda. Having done that, he declared his candidacy for governor.
Gementiza's flip-flopping was uneventful. He was not a loss to the party. In fact, I think, his having bolted the Lakas-CMD provided a quick solution on the party's predicament of how and what to do with him.
What was perplexing was the unanticipated decision of Representative Tonyboy Floirendo to run for governor. Excruciatingly painful as this may seem, the young Del Rosario, true to family discipline and good breeding, gave way to his cousin Tonyboy.
The elder Del Rosario came home to alleviate the pain of an obedient son. After all it was at the instance of the clan, headed by the patriarch Don Antonio Floirendo Sr. and his father, to pull out Anthony from a successful banking career and nurture him in politics so he can serve the public. Anthony went through the gamut of politics serving in various capacities as barangay captain, ABC president, provincial board member and finally vice governor, and the governorship should have been the apogee of his new career.
While the anguish in the Del Rosario family came to a healing, the political climate is steering into a storm. Talks of political commercialism nauseated even with the religious leaders. Businessmen and the hoi polloi were worried about the possible retrogression of the province under the leadership that could steer the province into a new wind direction. They knew too well that the Gementiza regime stagnated the development with the leadership style that is not even fit for barangay governance anymore.
Now it can be told that the visit of the elder Del Rosario to his son in Tagum had its divine intervention. "We had him hostage as he was preparing to leave for Manila," a priest I talked to confessed to me. He also revealed that they sent hundreds of their parishioners to picket the house of Del Rosario. It turned out that thousands staged a rally around the house of RDR long before the break of dawn to stop him from leaving. The crowd was chanting his name and urging him to run to save the province from stagnation and ruin. Tagum City Mayor Chiong Uy was there. The mayor later told me that it was some kind of go for broke. "I am willing to personally extend to Dolfo whatever resources and assistance he needs."
Indeed, without Dolfo or Anthony many businessmen might lose much of their resources anyway.
All these were part of cloudy political episode of Davao del Norte. Dolfo yielded to the people's clamor and true enough he won in all electoral precincts in the province.
Last weekend, it was time to rev up the enthusiasm of the provincial heads of departments and other support clusters of the province. They were cloistered in a seminar room for a three-day operational planning exercise. Governor Del Rosario explained that the bureaucracy has to be primed anew so that they can move forward and undertake the implementation of the projects that are in the pipeline. After three years of mediocre governance of Yayong the wheels of the program for development and reforms have practically come to a stop. The operational planning had reacquainted the heads of offices with every facet of the Provincial Government programs and guided them to a clear direction. "It's all systems go and full speed ahead now," Governor Dolfo said.
What is equally important to the stakeholders of Davao del Norte is that Anthony G. del Rosario has stayed foot. From what I learned, he will act as the Executive Officer of the action team that is comprised by the provincial heads of office.
Governor Dolfo said that the province has big and small infrastructure projects but what he personally wants to achieve along the way are for the marginalized communities to attain their minimum basic needs. Anthony and his team know where and how to work out their plans and this one is really worth watching.
Meantime, RDR told me that the construction and concreting of the first 10-kilometer link of the Davao del Norte-Bukidnon road has started. The initial P100-million of the P1.2-billion peso highway had been released. He is also looking forward to the release of a P720-million fund for the Saug River dam which will irrigate not less than 8,000 hectares. The dam has other uses but that would need another column in the future.
(For feedback and comment e-mail me at scledesmajr@yahoo.com)
