Word war flies over Malapascua

CEBU, Philippines - One Cebu candidates warned the people of Malapascua Island in Daanbantayan town against Magpale as being “anti-development” for the island as tourist destination.

Magpale, the chairman of the committee on tourism in the Provincial Board prior to her ascension as vice governor and as acting governor, is set to visit the island tomorrow together with other candidates of the Liberal Party.

But Magpale stressed that insufficient funds, and not lack political will, is reason there is less development in Malapascua.

Daanbantayan Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot of the Nacionalista Party led last Wednesday evening her allies of One Cebu in their campaign in the island.

Loot said that she has been a witness of how Malapascua and the entire municipality developed since the time of then governor, Rep. Pablo Garcia, until the time of the latter’s daughter, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

Loot said that only in the later part of the last term of Gwendolyn that the municipality was deprived of projects from the Capitol allegedly because of the intrigue initiated by Magpale against her.

Magpale was blamed by Loot why Gwendolyn got angry at her in the past two and a half years resulting in the stalling of some of the projects.

Loot and her son, Provincial Board Member Sun Shimura, including Gwendolyn, lost in Malapascua Island in the past elections.

“Kung nanglimbong pa mi, nganong napilde man mi diri? Sayop diay ni Gov. Gwen ang pagpanindot sa Malapascua?” Shimura said.

Garcia, her brother gubernatorial candidate Pablo John “PJ” Garcia, Rep. Benhur Salimbangon, and PB Member Joven Mondigo Jr. joined Loot and her complete NP slate in their sortie in Malapascua Island.

Gwendolyn recalled the resistance of the people when she implemented the clearing of beaches from illegal structures.

“Ang isla maoy buhing testament sa daghang reklamo, sa katapusan nahimong matinud-anon ang akong plataporma nga dili sulti ang pabuhaton, buhat ang pasultihon,” Gwen said. (This island is a witness to the many complaints that ended with us proving that we let our actions speak for us.)

She said that Magpale stopped projects that are already approved for the development of the tourism industry in Malapascua Island when an illegal suspension order was served against her last December. Some of these include the construction of a port in the island and the installation of solar street lamps.

“Naundang lang tungod sa ila pamintaha sa gahum. . .hiwi nga pamaagi, hiwi nga pamatasan, hiwi pa gyud og hitsura,” Gwen said.

Now that Malapascua is developed, Gwen asked the people to support Pablo John to sustain this development.

Aside from Malapascua, Salimbangon reported that Magpale also stopped other projects in Bantayan Island, also a tourist destination.

“Mao ba gyud na lihok sa responsable nga executive sa probinsiya? Dili na hatagan og laing higayun, let us elect a governor who can continue the development in Malapascua,” Salimbangon said.

Mondigo also supported the call of Salimbangon as he is a witness of the development of Malapascua.

“Kung masayop ta pagpili og governor, ang pikas di ta kaseguro,” Mondigo said.

But Magpale reiterated that the Provincial Government is still paying debts, the reason they are not able to push through with projects in a lot of towns and cities.

“No I am not anti-development of Malapascua. I am for the preservation of the environment,” expressed Magpale, adding though that she does not know the basis of the allegation.

“Unsa man ang basis? Tungod sa pier na wala pa nahuman? Nya wala may kwarta gyud.”

Magpale stressed that it is not on whether she wills development programs to push through  but it’s because the Province is not able to pay for any programs for now considering that payables of the Provincial Capitol is close to a billion.

“There are many projects that we would want to continue, but the utang now is almost P1B.”

She added that there have been projects that have been bidded out but until now they do not know how the plan for the cash flow was done.

Magpale said that they have prioritized service providers who have months or years worth of service to be collected from the Province.

She said this would be explained to residents during the local Liberal Party’s visit this Friday in the island.

As for the pending projects in the island, Magpale said they would

determine still on the available funds but for now, they would not want to start a project that has been bidded and would force the provincial accountant to certify the availability of funds when there is none. —/JPM (FREEMAN)