Ginatilan mayor smells politics in DILG case

CEBU, Philippines —  Of the more or less 50 local government units in Cebu, the municipality of Ginatilan, a four-hour ride from the capital Cebu City, was the lone town that failed the second road-clearing evaluation of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Ginatilan Mayor Dean Michael Singco smells something fishy about it.

He alleged that one reason why his town failed DILG’s second road-clearing review is the “chummy” relations between DILG Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing III and Singco’s political opponent, Maria Fema Duterte.

“Si ASec. Densing, suod na sa akong kontra sa politika dire: si Fema Duterte. Suod sila… ambot gisakyan kaha ko ug politika oy (Fema and ASec Densing are close friends. I don’t know, I think I am being politicized)," Singco said in a phone interview with The FREEMAN.

Singco made the remarks after reports that DILG has filed a case against Ginatilan, among other LGUs in the country, for supposedly failing to comply with the second round of evaluation on the road-clearing order by the President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

The case was filed before the Office of the Ombudsman on December 16, 2019.

In a follow-up text message, Singco wrote: “Hopefully sa Ombudsman, I will have a fair trial. In DILG, I did not get a fair trial because ASec Densing III is chummy to my political opponent Miss Maria Fema Duterte."

In the 2019 elections, Singco ran for mayor under Nationalist People’s Coalition while Duterte ran for vice mayor under Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan. The latter lost to NPC candidate Vice Mayor Jose Ramon Gornez.

As of this writing, Ginatilan LGU is yet to receive a copy of the case filed.

But according to Singco, DILG failed to reach out to the LGU post-filing of the case. He added that they only knew of the pending case against them through a social media post by Densing.

“Wa pa gyud mi ka-receive og file copy sa kaso sa Ombudsman. Sa social media ra, katong sa video. Gi file-an na kuno mi og kaso sa Ombudsman sa road clearing," he said.

Singco also lamented that at least for the part of the Ginatilan, no clear instructions were given as to the conduct and requirements of the road-clearing order.

"Frustrating kaayo. Disappointing ba kay naningkamot baya mi, dili ra ako. Community effort baya to (It’s frustrating and disappointing because we were doing our best. It was community effort),” he said.

According to the Ginatilan mayor, the criteria for the first evaluation were given only two days prior to the actual assessment. Among the requirements was a road-clearing ordinance, which he said was too late to comply with at the time.

Eventually, the LGU failed the first evaluation on September 30.

After that, Singco said, they asked for the new criteria so that they can take appropriate steps for compliance.

However, the DILG allegedly failed to give them the new set of criteria so they opted to follow the one used in the initial evaluation.

"Ang criteria nga nahagbong mi sa September 30, 60 days after, mao na lang among gi-work on," he said.

Singco said his town attempted to contact the DILG in the provincial level and found out that they were unaware of the ongoing case.

It also tried to reach out to the national level but Singco said they realized it would be futile since the case has already been filed.

This paper tried but failed to get comments from Fema Duterte and the DILG as this was written yesterday.  JMD (FREEMAN)