Bzzzzz: What Talisay City will ask MCWD officials in new dialogue date

CEBU. Talisay City Mayor Samsam Gullas and facade of the Talisay City Hall. (Photos from SunStar Archives and Talisay City Public Information Office)
CEBU. Talisay City Mayor Samsam Gullas and facade of the Talisay City Hall. (Photos from SunStar Archives and Talisay City Public Information Office)

PEOPLE talk about...

[1] CARDINAL TAGLE BEING 'GROOMED'

AS NEXT POPE. That would take quite a huge leap of faith for those who believe it would happen.

But Pinoys are good at speculating on possibilities.

[2] CEBU CITY COUNCIL 'DRUG-FREE'? Not till Councilors Joel Garganera and Tony Cuenco will submit to the test. They haven't done so yet or the results are not yet submitted to Vice Mayor Mike Rama, presiding officer.

Another confrontation set

Talisay City Mayor Samsam Gullas had complained they were "injunned" by MCWD officials at a dialogue scheduled for last December 2, a Monday.

Unprofessional, discourteous, said the mayor. Not only Samsam was stood up; City Hall's department heads and the city's barangay captains too who were waiting with him "for hours."

The mayor must have been appeased by the explanation and the "oh-so-sorry" regrets from the water district. Another dialogue is scheduled for Thursday, December 12, starting 9 a.m. at Talisay City Hall.

Reasons for snafu

The reasons for the snafu in the previous schedule, which made the mayor rant:

[1] Five MCWD had agreed to a dialogue scheduled for December 4 at 2 p.m. at Talisay City Hall. The "confrontation" was arranged the week before and none of the officials who sealed the arrangement informed the acting general manager about their commitment.

[2] On the day of the dialogue, after the mayor's lament was publicized, the officials who had arranged it said they thought that it would be held at MCWD and the mayor and his group "would come" to its office in Cebu City. (A silly thought unless the city mayor had asked for it, for his own reasons.) But even then, water district documents needed for the dialogue had also not been prepared yet on the day of the aborted dialogue.

At the Talisay City end, nobody also bothered to check with MCWD a day or two before the day of dialogue if everything would go through as scheduled.

Miscommunication, someone at MCWD called it. It could be inefficiency on both sides, although the bigger blame may be laid on the water district. Talisay officials were at the site; MCWD people didn't show up. Apparently, there was no post-agreement coordination at all.

No mention was made by Bzzzzz's source about a supposed out-of-country vacation by MCWD officials, which Mayor Samsam made a lot of noise about.

What Talisay wants

The information the Talisay City officials are asking from MCWD includes (1) the volume of water MCWD is getting from that city; (2) how much of the extracted water actually serves Talisay residents; and (3) the City Government's share of the revenue.

The documents may be sent by courier or e-mail. Why the face-to-face meeting? Talisay officials must want to get more information right there and then, in the presence of the city's decision-makers and stakeholders, who include department officials and barangay captains.

Expect the City Government to make big decisions regarding water supply (to and from MCWD) soon after they get the data for an informed choice of options.

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