Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Former mayor slams councilor over request
By Danilo V. Adorador III
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Councilors of this city rushed to the defense of a colleague who, together with other members of a City Council committee, received a tongue lashing from a former mayor.
Taking the cudgels for health committee chairman Simeon Licayan, councilors lambasted former mayor Pablo Magtajas for his cutting letter to the committee, telling Licayan and his members they are shameless.
The letter, addressed to Licayan and received by the City Council secretariat last Friday, was Magtajas's reaction when the health committee invited the former mayor's wife for a possible project cooperation.
Magtajas's wife Anita is the chair of Mother Theresa Foundation, a non- government organization (NGO) involved in sheltering orphans.
As a charitable foundation, which had secured its present land through an agreement signed with the City Government a few years back, Councilor Reynaldo Advincula said their committee only wanted to "explore possibilities of further cooperation" in inviting Anita last week.
"The committee was just thinking if the Mother Theresa foundation can help us find shelter for our street children," said Advincula, who delivered an equally stinging response to Matajas's reaction at the start of the session.
"This reaction from the former mayor makes me think that they are hiding anomalies in that foundation," he added.
Apparently, that didn't sit well with Magtajas, who responded by accusing the health committee of trying to take over the foundation.
"You want to takeover an NGO? You want to impose martial law in Cagayan de Oro ahead of Manila?" wrote an irate Magtajas, who addressed himself in the letter as legal counsel for the foundation.
"I hope you will not unnecessarily expose the ignorance of your committee. This letter serves as my wife's appearance," Magtajas wrote.
In the brink of tears, Licayan immediately offered his resignation as committee chairman, a move Vice Mayor Michelle Spiers rejected.
Outraged, councilors pole-vaulted a resolution "expressing their disgust and anger" with Magtajas, but which Licayan prevented, saying he didn't want a "precipitate response."
Councilor Jose Benjamin Benaldo demanded the full disclosure of the foundation's financial standing, supporting Advincula's suggestion that it might have been a breeding ground for money laundering.
Benaldo said there might be more than meets the eye in the foundation's refusal for a joint project with the City Government. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
(March 7, 2006 issue)
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