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Saturday, April 05, 2008
Lawmaker hits MMDA chief on Aklan trip (1:05 p.m.)
MANILA -- The House will look into reports of Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Bayani Fernando's attendance of the Ati-Atihan festival in Kalibo, Aklan last January “with an entourage of around 100 MMDA officials and personnel using an MMDA bus transported by roll-on-roll off (Ro-Ro) ferry.”
Representative Roilo Golez, spokesman for the minority bloc, said he wants to find out if the trip is connected with Fernando’s political plans in 2010.
“The MMDA chairman is reportedly doing regular provincial sorties lately. Are his trips approved by the President and the Metro Manila Council (MMC)?” he said.
Golez is set to file a resolution seeking the special committee on Metro Manila development chaired by Representative Annie Rosa Susano to investigate what he called Fernando’s “uglification" of the National Capital Region (NCR) with gigantic tarpaulin posters of his face strewn across major thoroughfares.
The huge posters, depicting Fernando as some sort of "bad boy," are prominently displayed in major thoroughfares in Metro Manila, especially along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (Edsa) and Commonwealth Avenue.
The posters bear the message: "Kaayusan: Metro Guwapo, Tao Ganado, Produktibo, Kahirapan Naiibisan."
Golez said the MMDA must disclose to the public how much it has spent on all the tarpaulins and the pink paint for the MMDA chairman's personal political projection.
Susano earlier said several millions in government funds for road widening projects have been wasted due to "thoughtless experimentation" by the MMDA of various traffic congestion solutions.
She criticized the MMDA for putting motorists at risk with various obstructions on highways, specifically along Commonwealth Avenue and Edsa where wide U-turn slots are said to be causing a traffic bottleneck aside from the pink fences which are placed and removed on a trial-and-error basis. (WV/Sunnex) |
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