The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should be held accountable for the missing trees on S. Osmeña Road at the North Reclamation Area. The trees suddenly disappeared from the center island where they were planted.
When they were first asked about it, DPWH representatives said they didn’t know although the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) earlier issued a permit for the agency to earth-ball the trees to pave the way for the road rehabilitation.
The contractor, WT Construction, was quiet. But closed-circuit TV cameras of the city government showed heavy equipment and workers of WT Construction removing the trees late at night till early morning.
WT Construction should answer the complaint and explain why it hauled out the trees at night and where they were taken.
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What is happening in the Talisay City College is both amusing and confusing. Mayor JVR appointed the controversial Dr. Paulus Cañete as college president to replace former city councilor Ritchel Bacaltos, who was appointed officer-in-charge by the Board of Trustees after the suspension of the TCC president.
Apparently, Cañete’s appointment was made by the mayor without the concurrence of the board of trustees. Majority of the trustees are allies of former congressman Eduardo Gullas. Because of that, Bacaltos insisted on staying on and wouldn’t give way to the mayor’s choice.
The Board of Trustees confirmed the appointment of Bacaltos as TCC president. To make matters worse, students went through two separate graduation rites held on campus.
It was a childish gesture by the two presidents who appeared more interested in satisfying their personal interests rather than the interest of the students and the public.
Then the Civil Service Commission declared the termination of the services of the former president Ramos as illegal because there were no formal charges filed against Ramos, a denial of his right to due process of law.
So technically, the Talisay City College has three presidents.
Luckily, Ramos is no longer interested in being reinstated. All he wants are the back wages and benefits that were due him.
Talisay officials should sort out this mess in the TCC which has greatly disturbed the students.
Dr. Cañete should no longer insist on holding on to his position and Bacaltos should also have the delicadeza to allow the new board chairperson Mayor JVR appoint a new president.
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Officials of Changi Singapore-Filinvest was supposed to appear in one of the 888 weekly forums. They asked to be invited to one of the Tuesday forums, then begged off and asked that it be reset for next week because the representative from Changi Singapore had just arrived in the morning.
A week has passed and we have not heard anything more from them. Their PR man apologized for not informing us that company officials had to attend a Senate hearing.
We would have wanted them to clarify certain questions in the minds of the public, the same way representatives of GMR-Megawide consortium did in a previous forum. What’s important is that the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) project be awarded to the best bidder so work can begin on the much-delayed project.