Time for Treñas to say thank you

By Alex P. Vidal

“None of us got to where we are alone. Whether the assistance we received was obvious or subtle, acknowledging someone’s help is a big part of understanding the importance of saying thank you.”—Harvey Mackay

WE expect Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas to thank the 229 solons, including Aambis-OWA partylist Rep. Sharon Garin and House Bill 10464 author, Iloilo City lone district Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda, for the approval on December 13 on third and final reading in the House of Representatives of the bill that seeks to establish the Iloilo City Hospital.

No more hard feelings and animosity.

The bill was the genesis of the boisterous tremor that erupted between the city mayor and Rep. Garin recently owing to the delay of its passage in the Lower House.

Now that Baronda had nothing but a piece of good news for Treñas and the Ilonggos in Iloilo City in general, it’s also time for the city mayor to also thank House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, Majority Floor Leader Martin Romualdez, Appropriations Committee Chair Eric Yap, Health Committee Chair Angelina Tan for their support for the bill.

Baronda, who described the approval of the legislative measure as “an early Christmas gift to the people of Iloilo City” in a statement, also formally put to a closure the controversy that almost shattered the political relationship of the Garins in the first district of Iloilo and the city officials sympathetic to Trenas and Baronda.

All’s well that ends well but the hurting words, which are expected to heal by the passing of time, hopefully.

Baronda beamed: “We pray that the counterpart measure in the Senate is also passed real soon. We are doing our best to strengthen the healthcare system by putting up our own hospital so that the Ilonggos will have easy access to affordable and efficient medical care.”

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Government officials in the Philippines who attach their names and photos on projects financed by the taxpayers are ridiculed as “epals” for their inappropriate action.

In fact, a Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) memorandum circular no. 2010-101 dated September 23, 2010 bans them from placing their names, initials, photos and other images in the billboards and signages of government programs, projects and properties.

And while we laud the Commission on Audit (COA) for stumbling into Passi City’s P629,564.21 worth of “irregular expenditures” in its audit observation for the calendar year 2020, we aren’t sure if chiding local officials of Passi City, Iloilo “for plastering their names and faces on certain government projects, programs, and properties and on procured goods” was part of its mandate.

If it is, then COA deserves another accolade even if it may have duplicated DILG’s function and power to lower to boom on all “epals” all over the Philippines.

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In Section 2 (1) of Article IX-D on the Commission on Audit of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, COA shall only have “the power, authority, and duty to examine, audit, and settle all accounts pertaining to the revenue and receipts of, and expenditures or uses of funds and property, owned or held in trust by, or pertaining to, the Government, or any of its subdivisions, agencies, or instrumentalities, including government-owned or controlled corporations with original charters, and on a post-audit basis…”

COA’s constitutional mandate clearly doesn’t include berating the “epals”, but the state auditors can always assert that pointing out the “epals’” transgressions will justify their findings of the “irregular expenditures.”

COA scored Passi City officials saying the “practice of putting up of billboard and signage’s and other information materials bearing the names, initial or pictures of government personalities on all government projects, and government properties (fire truck, ambulances, vehicles etc.), is prohibited.”

Also, COA lectured them that information on government project should be limited to the “name of the project and location, contractor, the date when it started and the project’s completion date” and that government projects or properties and official vehicles must also only contain the “official seal or name of the local government unit.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)