The Boljoon Blogs

UNLIKE in 2002, when Teresita Celis won the presidency of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Provincial Federation by less than five votes, yesterday’s election was a breeze.

Like her, the other candidates for ABC positions ran unopposed.

Celis garnered 43 votes, the total number of ABC members present yesterday, out of 50. All the other officials got at least 40 votes.

This show of unity prompted Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to pledge P1 million in financial aid to the federation.

She promised to give the same amount to the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation, just as she did to two other organizations, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines and the Vice Mayors’ League.

All districts

Celis explained there was a consensus on who should run for the 11 slots in the ABC federation.

The 50 ABC representatives from the different towns and cities reportedly urged Celis to seek reelection and in turn, sit as an ex-officio member of the Provincial Board (PB) again.

Celis is from Boljoon.

The other districts were also represented in the line-up.

Former PB member Jose Ribomapil “Joey Boy” Holganza, representing Bantayan Island, is the new vice president, while Alcoy’s Domingo Carungay won as auditor. Just like Celis, both gained 100 percent of the votes from those present.

The only two other officers who garnered all the votes are Analee Gungob of Consolacion, daughter of Mayor Avelino Gungob Sr., and former dySS news anchor Greman “Jojo” Solante of Tudela. They are both members of the ABC board of directors.

The other directors are Mercedita Apura of Carcar City and Jose Brainard Mayol of Bogo City, who got 42 votes apiece, while those who gathered 41 votes were Joseph Redula of Alegria, Elmer Teleron of Barili and Leo Salundaguit of Liloan.

Santander’s Juanito Puspus, who gained 40 votes, completed the board of directors.

Quick count

The voting started at 10:50 a.m. and was finished by 11:10. The new set of ABC officers were proclaimed at 11:45. They then took their oaths before Garcia.

While the governor said she would excuse the seven members who were absent, she urged the others to remember who they were.

Those who failed to sign the attendance sheet are the ABC town presidents of San Fernando, Dalaguete, Tuburan, Daanbantayan, Danao City and Cordova. The representative from Aloguinsan came in late and failed to vote.

Garcia commended the provincial federation for its unity, and pointed out that she did not intervene in the process.

“Wala ako niadto sa mga pamantalaan aron magpasigarbo kung kinsa akong buot mahimo nga presidente kay dili nako buot nga tamak-tamakan ang inyong dignidad (I did not announce in the papers who my choice would be, because I wanted to respect your dignity),” Garcia told the newly elected ABC officials.

Moalboal ABC president Susan Nueva said she hopes to get a part of the aid for the development of Barangay Saavedra, which she said has become a tourist destination because of its white sand beach.

Celis, though, has yet to meet with the members before outlining the projects the P1 million can be used for.

Brother

Celis, 50, is the ninth child in a family with 12 children. She followed in the footsteps of her mother Lourdes Derama, who was also the Barangay Captain of Poblacion, Boljoon and served as an ABC president at one time.

Boljoon Mayor Deogenes Derama is Celis’ younger brother.

Derama attended the elections to show support for his “Ate Daday,” whom he described as “a good person.” Celis is a mother of three and married to 52-year-old Alejandrino.

In Lapu-Lapu City, the ABC elections proceeded in a similarly uncontroversial fashion.

Pajo Barangay Captain Leo Mercado won a second term as ABC president and ex-officio City Council member, running unopposed. Paz Radaza, the mayor’s wife and incumbent barangay captain of Mactan, was reelected treasurer in the elections held in a restaurant in Barangay Pusok.

“We have agreed among us on who should be the ABC president. And since nobody objected, we cast our votes according to that agreement. We were not influenced by anyone. It was for the good of the association and the individual barangay,” Radaza said.

More income

From casting to canvassing of votes, the election lasted four hours, beginning at 10:15 a.m. Representatives from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Commission on Election (Comelec) ensured that rules were strictly followed.

After inducting the ABC officers, Mayor Arturo Radaza reminded the captains of the City’s additional budgetary obligations.

He pointed out the expenses to operate the Lapu-Lapu City and the Sta. Rosa District Hospitals, which were turned over by Cebu Province last Dec. 21 through a memorandum of agreement. The estimated cost of running both hospitals is at least P40 million a year.

“We should help one another, especially since we are now highly urbanized. We must raise our annual income,” he said.

All 30 barangays in Lapu-Lapu City are led by allies of the city administration, after Radaza’s handpicked candidates won the barangay elections in Punta Engaño and Basak, the last strongholds of the opposition in the Oct. 29 elections. (JGA/AIV)

CEBU Provincial Board (PB) Member Teresita Celis of Boljoon town is likely to be elected today as president of the Association of Barangay Councils Provincial Federation.

She is running unopposed and leads the Capitol-supported candidates for the 11-member officers of the league.

Each candidate is running unopposed.

The election is slated today at the Capitol Social Hall.

Jose Ribomapil “Joey Boy” Holganza Jr. of Bantayan Island is running for vice president.

Holganza, who was a former PB member, ran for a slot in the fourth district’s PB during the last May elections but lost.
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By Jolene Bulambot
Visayas Bureau
Last updated 03:47am (Mla time) 12/15/2007

CEBU CITY—Close to P200 million worth of road improvement works, including one in Siquijor, were inserted in the Department of Public Works and Highway’s P2-billion budget for the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit held in Cebu in January.

At least 16 maintenance projects for national roads, with a budget totaling P175 million, were included in the 36 items that were approved by the DPWH as projects related to the Asean summit, according to a document obtained from the legal department of the DPWH in Central Visayas.

The document showed that out of DPWH’s P2-billion budget for the Asean summit, P415 million was allotted for road improvement in Metro Cebu areas that surround or were within the venues of Asean summit meetings and other activities.

But of the 36 items, several national roads, including the intermittent section of the Poo-Lazi national road in the island-province of Siquijor, were allocated funds even if these were not related to the Asean event.

Lawyer Agustinito Hermoso, regional legal officer of DPWH in Central Visayas, admitted that there were rehabilitation and improvements of national roads that were not part of the Asean venues but were included in the Asean budget.

Hermoso said this was done by the DPWH to provide funds for national roads that needed immediate maintenance.

“That was what the secretary of public works and highways (Hermogenes Ebdane) approved. We can’t question the wisdom of the secretary. There were roads that were rehabilitated and improved but were not used during the Asean summit. In asking for budget, we don’t ask for piecemeal but we consolidated all the needed budget for the rehabilitation and improvements of national roads in Cebu. Including it in the Asean budget is a justification so that the budget will be released immediately,” Hermoso said.

The almost P2-billion budget for the summit was taken from the Motor Vehicles User’s Charge (MVUC) fund.

The 16 national roads that were not actually used in the Asean summit events but were listed as Asean projects included P15 million for the Cebu Transcentral Highway; a total of P30 million for four other Cebu City streets; N. Bacalso Avenue (Bulacao to Mananga section in Talisay City), P15 million; Cebu-Toledo Wharf Road, P10 million; N. Bacalso Avenue (Boljoon section), P10 million; Santander-Barili Road (Samboan section), P10 million; Santander-Barili-Toledo Road (Moalboal section), P10 million;

Toledo-Tuburan road, P10 million; Tuburan-Tabuelan Road, P10 million; Tabuelan-San Remigio Road, P10 million; Cebu North Road (Canlagang-Lamak section), P10 million; Cebu North Road Wharf Road (Liloan-Danao section), P10 million; and the Poo-Lazi National Road, P15 million.

Hermoso admitted only some of these 36 items went through the bidding process while others were done without bidding through a special authority signed by Ebdane on June 23, 2006.

The document showed that DPWH also allocated P131 million for the rehabilitation and improvement of roads owned by local governments in the cities of Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island and in Mandaue City.

The same list also revealed that DPWH set aside P270 million for road safety projects in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.

The document confirmed an earlier Commission on Audit finding that there were 136 project costing P1.5 billion that were implemented without bidding and 16 other road maintenance project, worth P168.3 million, implemented outside the venues of the Asean meetings.

The COA also found that 63 projects worth P766.7 million were implemented without appropriate funding and perfected contracts; P54.9 million of 660 sets of lampposts were found to be overpriced; and rehabilitation and repair works costing P30.3 million were implemented in private lots.

DPWH Regional Director Marlina Alvizo said in an earlier interview that the DPWH was preparing to answer the COA findings.

She denied any irregularity in the implementation of Asean-related projects saying the DPWH could justify the spending.

By Godofredo M. Roperos
the Manila Times

PEOPLE who went early to the city’s downtown area on Wednesday a fortnight ago, were surprised to see atop the façade of a moviehouse along Colon Street, the oldest in the city, a nativity scene with Mary and Joseph having very familiar faces. As the theater owner explained later, it was just his way of trying to promote peace during the Yule season. Mary had President Arro­yo’s face, while Joseph had the visage of recently pardoned Erap Estrada.

To make the joke funnier, if it was not a sad one, on the theater marquee, just below the nativity scene, was the title of the movie showing that day: “Sex Drive.” The people who saw it could be of two kinds: the ones who saw the humor in the native “belen” and those who were scandalized by Mary with GMA’s face, and Joseph with the face of Estrada. Church leaders promptly denounced it as blasphemous.

The effort to initiate national reconciliation and peace might have been well meaning on the part of the theater owner, but he failed to take into consideration the religious sensibilities of the people. Cebu reveres and worships the Child Jesus as a miraculous one, and the average Cebuano would feel insulted with a highly politicized belen.

It seems politics has permeated almost every sinew of our life, from the simple individual in the countryside to the most sophisticated inhabitant in our cities. It is holding all of us captive without any means of escape.

That we have grown to be a highly politicized people is an undeniable reality. One solid proof is that even in the way we live our Catholic faith, we intersperse our religious thought with fragments of politics.

The Cebu archdiocesan media liaison officer, Msgr. Achilles Dakay, said that Church-related activities or images are sacred. He frowned on politicians’ propensity to ride on religious activities, pointing to a similar incident in Lapu­lapu City when the mayor used the pulpit to hit back at his political detractors. There was also the incident the other week in Boljoon town where scantily-clad beauty contestants were made to cavort onstage.

Ignoring the strict traditional Filipino morality, the beauty pageant appeared to Gov. Gwen Gar­cia as gravely in bad taste. Scandalized, she walked out of the affair. Later she announced that she would henceforth cut financial assistance to fiesta celebrations that will not observe decency and good taste in their presentations. It is high time our social and political leaders stop the politicization of our lives.

Truth to tell, the way the governor’s walkout from the Boljoon beauty pageant was received by the rural folks indicates that vestiges of our forebears’ high standard of morality remain in the heart of our people. It needs only a determined leader to resurrect traditional values lay buried in the crassness of modern life.

Indeed, there is a need to regenerate the dynamism of our traditional values so that our youth may overcome the challenges of our contemporary times

Cebu Daily News
Last updated 01:16pm (Mla time) 12/05/2007

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebu’s first lady governor does not like sleazy beauty pageants, something that she made perfectly clear to the mayors – especially the male mayors – of Cebu towns on Tuesday.

“You male mayors really like it when we women strut on stage wearing clothes so thin it reveals everything,” said Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. “You’re down there, smiling and applauding. Are you that corrupted?”

“We will not stop you from holding this, but don’t do it with the province’s resources, because we will not appropriate a single centavo for any vulgarity and obscenity that may be presented,” she told mayors during Tuesday’s Provincial Development Council meeting.

“I wish to remind you that as local chief executives, leaders and officials of each of your government units, you have a responsibility to uphold public morals and values. It is a duty, it is a responsibility, you have no choice here,” Garcia said.

Her speech was met with loud applause from the mayors – especially from the female mayors – and other officials who were present.

Garcia recalled a pageant held in Boljoon last month wherein she was invited to watch a show that would highlight “old traditional costumes.”

The governor walked out of the pageant after seeing contestants wearing bikinis gyrating on stage.

The pageant was part of the town’s fiesta celebration for its patron, the Virgin Mary.

“It was totally immoral to have these young girls cavorting about, gyrating like they were commodities for sale,” Garcia said.

The governor lamented the recent “degeneration of pageants into scandalous, obscene affairs.”

“Think of the negative impact this would have on the youth. You wonder why young children are getting raped or are already raping other kids of their age or younger? You still wonder why?” she asked, as all the mayors fell silent.

The governor called on the officials to “get back to basics.”

“Remember who we are. Remember the things that are good and right,” she said.

As a possible alternative, Garcia encouraged local governments to hold searches for a town’s “festival queen” during fiesta celebrations.

She suggested that every year, the festival queen from every town would then get to vie for a provincial title.

The festival queens “would uphold the respect that is due to who ever you would call Miss San Fernando or Miss Alcantara. Because she is representing the town, not being ravished and ravaged by the eyes of the spectators,” she said. /Chief Of Reporters Suzzane Salva-Alueta