INDOLENCE. INDIFFERENCE. Intent, malicious intent. Inutility too.
Any and all of which jeopardized public governance in soon-to-be-City of Mabalacat.
Thrice, the sangguniang panlalawigan summoned — pursuant to a directive from the Department of the Interior and Local Government – Vice Mayor Noel Castro to its hearings on the proposed 2012 budget of the municipality.
Thrice, Castro did not appear at the SP, not even bothering to send word that he would not come.
An affront to, if not a direct contempt of the SP obtained there. Ignorance – as much in law as in protocol – is one alibi no one will buy.
“Out of respect man lang sa mga miyembro ng sangguiang panlalawigan hindi man po nagpadala ng anunsyo si Vice Mayor Castro na hindi siya makakadalo sa mga naganap na tatlong hearings.”
So disclosed Senior Board Member Crisostomo Garbo, himself a former vice mayor of Mabalacat.
With Castro’s failure to present himself at the SP, the committee on appropriation has been constrained to file a motion to disapprove the P529-million budget. Leaving no recourse to the municipal government but to make do with its 2011 budget which is P503 million.
P26 million short: a whale of a difference there in terms of programs, projects and services shorted, to the utter detriment of the people of Mabalacat.
Articulates Bical village chief Jeng Yumul: “Paano po ang mga mahahalagang proyekto na gagawin namin sa Mabalacat. Maapektuhan po ng lubusan ang mga ito pati na ang mamamayan.”
Gravely endangered too is the celebration of Mabalacat’s tercentenary.
Then, the activities preparatory to the town’s transformation into a component city.
With an inutile vice mayor in this wise, Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales had to intervene through an appeal to the SP:
“We will seek reconsideration from the provincial government, we cannot afford to lose our 2012 budget or else various development projects in anticipation of the eventual conversion of the town into a component city will come to naught.”
So what’s with this Castro?
He was signatory to the council resolution seeking cityhood for Mabalacat. He joined the lobbying for it before both Houses of Congress and was even pictured celebrating with the legislators when the cityhood bills were approved.
And then he did a total turnaround by claiming there was no need for Mabalacat to be a city. For which Castro was practically castrated, various sectors in the town branding him epithets that ranged from “incompetent” to “impotent” in his (dys)functions as vice mayor.
This latest boo-boo with the SP over the 2012 budget makes one more great affirmation of the negativity appended on Castro.
And Castro projects himself as mayoral material?
MKM. Misip Kayu Mabalaquenos. Makalunus ka Mabalacat.
God forbid!
