Ecija mayor scores Sangguniang Panlalawigan for 'sleeping on the job'

GEN. TINIO, Nueva Ecija, Philippines – Mayor Virgilio Bote yesterday slammed Vice Gov. Jose Gay Padiernos and the majority bloc in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for reportedly not doing their job as legislators and for allegedly not acting on resolutions forwarded to the SP by the municipal government.

Bote, estranged former ally of Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali and Padiernos, deplored that the vice governor and his allies in the SP have not acted on a resolution passed by the Sangguniang Bayan of this town recommending to the board members to revert its name to that of the municipality of Papaya.

“They are not doing their job. They seem to be on a vacation mode. And yet they are being paid by taxpayers of the province of Nueva Ecija,” Bote said.

He said only two board members – Eduardo Rey Joson and Juanito Juatco – both of the Bagong Lakas ng Nueva Ecija – are performing the tasks mandated to them as members of the SP since their election in May.

Earlier, Bote resigned as a member of Umali’s Unang Sigaw Partido ng Pagbabago and the Umali-dominated League of Municipalities of the Philippines in disgust over the alleged foot-dragging by Padiernos’ group on the resolution.

Bote complained that prior to the elections, the municipal government already forwarded to the SP a copy of the resolution renaming Gen. Tinio into Papaya but the said resolution “gathered dust” and remained unacted upon even after Padiernos and his allies assumed office last July 1.

The proposal to rename Gen. Tinio into Papaya was first broached up during a joint executive-legislative meeting on Jan. 14, 2008 by the municipal government led by Bote and the Sangguniang Bayan led by then-vice mayor Marcelo Abes Jr. which was attended by 13 barangay chairmen. During the meeting, major development plans were laid out, including the possible conversion of the town into a city in 10 years.

In two subsequent public hearings in March and April 2008, local officials arrived at a consensus to recommend to the SP the renaming of Gen. Tinio into Papaya, highlighted by the submission of the respective resolutions favorably endorsing the proposal.

On Oct. 13, 2008, the SB, on motion of Councilor Melvin Pascual, passed Resolution 117 recommending to the SP to revert the name of Gen. Tinio into Papaya.

Gen. Tinio was originally known as Barrio de Papaya of the adjacent town of Peñaranda. In the bell of the old Catholic Church, the words “Barrio de Papaya 1875” were inscribed as well as in the oldest written biography of Mamerto Ramos Padolina who was born in Papaya in 1845. It was officially declared as the Municipality of Papaya on Jan. 7, 1921.