Marquez hits back at foes on lanterns

Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez chided opposition councilors looking into the P3 million purchase of Christmas lanterns, saying they would do better by helping the city government look for a solution to the garbage crisis.

Instead of counting Christmas lanterns along Sucat Road, it would be better if they just help in finding solutions to the Metro Manila garbage crisis which has been adversely affecting Parañaque, Marquez said.

"It is outrageous to know that these councilors would rather count lanterns than spend quality time with city residents," Marquez said.

Marquez’s statements came after Councilor Generoso Puzon, council minority floor leader, questioned the city’s P3 million purchase of 400 big Christmas lanterns and 2,000 small lanterns.

Puzon said the purchased lanterns were too expensive and that the city government could have looked for cheaper ones.

However, Marquez said the purchase of the lanterns went through public bidding and the winning bidder also supplied the lanterns of the local governments of Makati, Manila and Pasay.

The mayor pointed out that the councilors could easily look into the purchase by looking at the documents of the city’s General Services Office which he said were public documents and could easily be availed of by the aldermen. Instead, Marquez said Puzon went to the media with the issue.

Reacting to the mayor’s press statement, Puzon questioned why the mayor skirted the issue and did not announce the purchase price of the lanterns. "He should also not talk to us about spending quality time with city residents because he was not here for several weeks last Christmas Season, apparently preferring to spend it with his family in the United States. As far as I know, I and my fellow opposition councilors were the ones who spent Christmas with our constituents," Puzon said. – Rainier Allan Ronda