SunStar: Mayor gets angry, stops Cebu school project

In an apparent case of political vendetta, Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña stopped the construction of a four-story, 20-classroom building for an elementary school in Lahug district. Sun Star Cebu that the act stemmed from his mayoralty rival’s claim that he never gave any project to Lahug. Lahug village captain Mary Ann delos Santos, who challenged Osmeña for the mayoralty post last May 14, had made the accusation. Osmeña said he will use the funds intended for Lahug to build a school building in Barangay Talamban instead. That way, de los Santos will not look like a liar to her constituents, he added. He said that most of the City’s asphalting projects were done in Lahug, especially the Beverly Hills area. “I will transfer the school building ... She (Delos Santos) has forgotten what I have done for her barangay (village)," he said. City Hall education consultant Joy Augustus Young said Osmeña revealed this policy when he went to his house to follow up on the construction of the school. Young said the mayor told him to stop the construction because delos Santos allegedly distributed a letter informing Lahug residents that Osmeña failed to give anything to the village. “The mayor was angry. He cited that most asphalting projects are in Lahug. So he decided that from now on, there will be no more projects for Lahug," he said. Young will ask the mayor next week to reconsider because the children need the school building. Young said that an old structure housing the canteen and the offices of the school principal and assistant principal, as well as a few classrooms, had already been demolished to give way to the new building. Delos Santos, for her part, claimed she does not know anything about the supposed letter. She said she will pray that Osmeña will realize it’s the school children who would suffer from his vindictiveness. “I hope he will reconsider and focus on the welfare of the children. Let him direct his anger at me, spare the children. He can continue to spite me," delos Santos said. She said that if there were projects that City Hall did in her barangay, she did not know about them because these were never coursed through her office. She maintained that Lahug did not receive any funding from the city government when the village implemented several programs, but she said she hopes Osmeña would change his mind. “I would say maybe yes, if he has fully overcome his emotional tantrum. I just hope he will make decisions when he is not angry," she said. - GMANews.TV