Outgoing Mayor Paz Radaza (left) has criticized incoming Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan (right) for choosing department heads, who are not from Lapu-Lapu City. | CDN Digital file photos
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — Outgoing Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza has criticized Mayor-elect Junard “Ahong” Chan for selecting department heads that are not Oponganons.
“Way Maayong tawo sa Lapu-Lapu? Apil diay siya,” Radaza said.
(There are no experts in Lapu-Lapu? That includes him.)
For Radaza, this serves as an insult to Oponganons because under the Radazas administration, the city was able to stand on its own.
“Mao bitawng lone district ta, unya ni-asenso ta tungod sa mga Oponganon,” she added.
(That is why we are a lone district and we developed because of the Oponganons.)
She said that an Oponganons would be the only ones who could greatly understand the needs of its constituents.
Radaza is proud that, currently, all department heads employed in the City Hall are Oponganons.
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But for Chan, he said that he selected these people because they already had an experience in running and managing their respective assigned offices.
“Tagae lang ko og kahigayonan sa akoang pagka-mayor. Lahi-lahi man ta og dinad-an,” Chan said.
(Give me a chance to run the city as a mayor. We have different styles on doing this.)
Chan also said that some of the department heads that he had selected were residing in Lapu-Lapu but working in other Local Government Units (LGUs).
“Ang ato nga makapadagan dayon ta sa atong pang-gobyerno because we are new in this position,” he added.
(What we are doing is that we can already run the local government because we are new in this position.)
He said that if he hired inexperienced department heads, he might experience difficulties in running the city.
“These are the people with experience on how to run a city. They are capable of that position,” he said, adding that he only wanted to give better services to Oponganons./dbs