President as referee? Mike, Tom to bring squabble to PNoy

CEBU, Philippines - President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III might end up as referee in the political intramurals of Cebu City.

This as Mayor Michael Rama and South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña, who both ran under the Liberal Party in the May 2010 elections, plan to bring up some matters with Aquino.

Rama has announced that he wants to let the president know his arguments against the construction of two flyover projects. 

Osmeña, on the other hand, said that he will let the president know that the mayor is only grandstanding.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) intends to build flyovers in Barangays Carreta and Kamputhaw, which Rama opposes as he believes that the budget would be put to better use if spent on widening the roads instead.

Osmeña doesn’t buy Rama’s point.

“I will tell the president that Rama is just grand standing of his move to block the construction of the twin flyover projects,” said Osmeña.

The congressman supports the construction of the flyover projects.

The two will, however, have to wait to raise their concerns to President Aquino as he is still in China for an official visit.

Rama said that it is not only him who is against that the flyover projects shall be constructed first ahead of the widening of roads.

“Maayo man og ako ra’y misupak ana nga naa may daghan pa nga mga tawo nga pareho mi og baruganan,” Rama said.

Osmeña said Rama’s move of blocking the construction of the flyover projects is “crab mentality” because while former North District Rep. Raul del Mar and daughter-Congressman Rachel “Cutie” del Mar worked hard to secure the P600 million funding for the project, Rama wants the amount spent for his projects.

Rama earlier said he is not totally against the construction of flyover projects at corner M.J. Cuenco and General Maxilom Avenues and at corner Gorordo and Archbishop Reyes Avenue, but he just wants that the roads in these areas be widened first before any construction is done.

According to Osmeña while Rama insists that the DPWH should first widen the roads, he did not say which roads will be prioritized.

He also accused Rama of belittling the efforts of the del Mars, who sought the funding for the two projects.

The DPWH is already preparing to conduct public biddings for the two projects.

Half of the P600 million funding would be spent for the widening of roads in the vicinity of the flyover.

Please Identify

In another development, Osmeña also challenged Rama to name the 300 problems that Osmeña’s administration failed to address when it was in office for nine years.

Osmeña raised this challenge a day after Rama advised his predecessor and erstwhile political patron to give a list of his sponsored bills or the number of privilege speeches that he had made in Congress.

Rama told the reporters that as city mayor from 2001 up to 2010 Osmeña failed to attend to several problems of the city that he had listed in his old personal notebook that he always carries on his back pocket.

“I will also challenge him to name each of the 300 problems that he said my previous administration failed to attend to,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña said that since Rama also used to be a city councilor for nine years and vice mayor for another nine years, he should also give a list of his sponsored ordinances and resolutions on how he addressed the problems.

While Rama refused to name what are the specific problems that the previous administration had failed to address, but he said some of them were already addressed by him such as the bad roads.

 Osmeña admitted that he has only a few sponsored bills during his first year as congressman, including the one that seeks to declare December 25 to December 31 every year as special non-working holidays to give the government workers a change to enjoy for a long vacation.

He also confirmed that he did not deliver any privilege speech before Congress because being the vice chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations he is only the alter ego of the chairman.

He said it is very simple to deliver privilege speeches, but “it does not contribute to the nation building.”

But what Osmeña claimed to be his major achievement is his expose about the 20,000 “ghost soldiers” in the Armed Forces of the Philippines that caused billions of pesos in loses to the government.–/NLQ (FREEMAN)