Where are the trees?

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.

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