Tom ticks off Arroyo's promise to build school

Mayor Tomas Osmeña is going to ask President Arroyo to fulfill her election promise to construct a public elementary school for the children of barangay Ermita at the Compaña Maritima area despite objections from the Cebu Port Authority.

Osmeña yesterday pointed out it was this promise of the President announced months prior to the official campaign period in last year's presidential elections that made her win in Ermita, a significant deviation from previous polls where opposition bets, including deposed President Joseph Estrada, had always won in the barangay.

In relation to this, he asked some of his staffs to document the election returns of barangay Ermita in the previous presidential elections to establish the trend of the election results.

The mayor said it would be a shame if the President would not keep her word so that he is going to keep on pushing and thus, bring this matter once again to the President until she delivers her political promise to the Ermita residents.

He said Arroyo should do her own part of the bargain just like him, as the local ally of the President, who had done his share with the city government already setting aside P17 million as early as 2003 for this purpose, even if the budget should have come from the funds of the Department of Education.

"I just want to help. It's not for me; it's not for Tommy, not for my bata-bata but for the kids there," Osmeña said.

The mayor is dismayed not only over CPA's failure to pay real property tax dues, amounting to approximately P300 million, including the approximate tax dues for its undeclared assets, but also over the port body's rejection of his proposal to build the barangay Ermita public elementary school near Compaña Maritima, a property which is owned by CPA.

CPA instead is planning to build a boardwalk on that same area. But the mayor earlier said should this push through, he is going to order for the closure of the south coastal road near the CPA so that its personnel could reach the place by swimming all the way from Cordova.

The mayor, who intervened on behalf of the CPA senior staff and rank-and-file employees, already handed to Arroyo their position paper calling for the ouster of general manager Mariano Martinez and other commissioners for "incompetence" and conflict of interests during the President's short visit here last Wednesday.

In a position paper dated August 4, they were calling on the members of the Cebu Port Commission, especially Martinez, to voluntarily resign from their respective posts, or if not for Arroyo to revoke their temporary appointments.

The letter contains the signature of CPA deputy general manager Dennis Villamor, engineering service department manager Mario Tan, legal affairs department manager Yusop Uckung and port security, safety and environmental management department manager Oscar Lopez. It also bears the signatures of 51 members of the union and of its vice president Lilius Udtohan.