Compostela acting Mayor Noval: Rep. Red Durano deceived people

CEBU, Philippines – The town of Compostela is not in a sorry state contrary to what Cebu 5th District Rep. Ramon "Red" Durano VI said about the municipality.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG-7) director and acting Compostela mayor Pedro Noval said that Durano is "deceiving the people" by providing inaccurate pictures of the town.

"He (Durano) delivered a speech without validating the information. I am not defending myself, I am just stating the facts," Noval said.

The statement came after Durano, in a privilege speech in the House of Representatives last week said that Compostela's treasury is nearing bankruptcy, basic services are suffering like the cutting of electricity in some parts of the town, and the alleged deteriorating peace and order situation.

These are happening, Durano said, because of the absence of a duly elected mayor and the alleged anomalous appointment of Noval, of all people, as the caretaker of the town. But statistics say otherwise as pointed out by Noval.

Noval said that immediately after Durano's privilege speech, he ordered Compostela Chief of Police Rodrigo Encarnacion Giangan to submit statistics of all crime incidents referred, gathered or processed by the PNP in the town from July to September this year and the same period last year.

Durano was not available for his comments last night.

According to the report, the crime rate from July to September last year is at 52.62 percent with a total of 85 crimes solved, 15 crimes filed in court and 70 crimes referred to the barangay level.

But from July this year since Noval sat as the acting mayor of the town until mid September, the crime rate has dropped to 30.79 percent with a total of 53 crimes recorded of which 10 are solved, 10 crimes filed in court and 43 crimes referred to the barangay level.

"This is because during my watch, I let everybody work and do their share. I regularly talked with punong barangays to activate their peace and order council," Noval said.

He also strongly denied that Compostela is almost bankrupt as allegedly indicated by unpaid debts including the P1 million electric bill to Cebu Electric Cooperative (CEBECO).

Even before Durano made his speech, the bill has been paid during the first week of August.

The money came from the savings of the town which has now reached P6.647 million cash in bank as certified by the municipal treasurer Lorenzo D. Almodiel.

Of the amount, P5.2 million forms part of the remaining 20 percent IRA of the town released monthly by the Department of Budget Management.

Compostela receives more than P4 million as IRA share monthly. With this and the collectibles from real property taxes, business taxes and other income, the town is targeting to have a savings of atleast P10 million by the end of the year.

"But since we were able to cut unnecessary expenses, we might reach our target by October," Almodiel said.

These unnecessary expenses include street lights that were removed from areas where they are not needed, Noval said.

"I instituted some austerity measures because based on my study, not all areas here need lighting, kay wala'y tawong muagi and not crime prone. I consulted the punong barangays to identify the areas where lighting is necessary. And we were able to reduce the cost by more than half," Noval said.

From P300,000 monthly electric consumption, they are now paying only less than P200,000.

Noval also reduced the travel allowance of employees from P800 per day to the standard P300 per day. He explained that the same is being implemented at the DILG and decided to replicate it in Compostela after he observed abuse by employees.

Noval however admitted that part of the savings come from the budget supposedly for the salary of 185 casual employees, whose contracts were not renewed because of the acting mayor's lack of power to hire and fire.

There are only 49 staff holding plantilla positions, who are doing all the work for the town, but Noval assured that everything is going smoothly at the municipal hall.

Most of these casual employees were assigned to the offices of the municipal councilors, garbage collection and other positions under the department of public services.

"Though I am not allowed to hire, I am allowed to sign a contract as long as it is for day to day operation. So I implanted a program indirectly hiring but not appointing. I get volunteers, who will mobilize their people to do the garbage collection, and they will receive allowance from municipal government," Noval said.

Even in the absence of the council, Noval said that there are not much operations affected except for new projects that will not approved or funded since it would need legislation.

Noval, as the standing chief of the executive already prepared the town's annual budget for next year in the amount of P51 million.

But it can not be approved in the absence of the council which will conduct the budget hearing.

A request to appoint a temporary council for the purpose of approving the budget was already forwarded to the DILG main office in Manila, Noval said.

On the issue of his appointment as caretaker, Noval said that it was the President who appointed him through the DILG secretary with the recommendation of the governor.

He said that since there is no law that will solve the problem of lack of elected officials in Compostela, it was the residual power of the President that was used to respond to the matter and the residual power can be delegated to the DILG secretary. -/NLQ (FREEMAN)