Politics once again reared its ugly head, this time in a project that was aimed to pay tribute to Cebu’s hero.
Norberto Zerenes, a cobbler who has set up shop at the corner of Tres de Abril St. in barangay Labangon, Cebu City could only sigh as he looks in disbelief at the fiberglass image of a horse built on a concrete platform in an unfinished monument to revolutionary leader Pantaleon Villegas, better known as Leon Kilat.
Zeneres, 54 knows why there was a need for a monument to honor the memory of the leader of the Cebuano revolt against Spain.
“Ang kana nga monumento nagahatag ug importansya sa pagpakigbisug nga gihimo sa mga bayani sa panahon sa mga Kastila,” he tells Cebu Daily News.
“Kadaghanan sa mga Katipuneros nga ninglaban gikan sa Labangon, mao nang proud pud ko sa pagpuyo diri.”
(That monument recognizes the valor of our heroes against the Spaniards. Most of the revolutionaries who fought in the battle were from Labangon that’s why I’m also proud to be from this place.)
The monument to Leon Kilat was a project initiated in 2013 by the chairman of barangay Labangon, Victor Buendia.
The P600,000 memorial features a life-size fiberglass image of Leon Kilat in battle while mounted on a horse.
Although the historical project was given the green-light by City Hall with initial work already underway, Buendia claimed the construction was stopped midway after Mayor Michael Rama allegedly refused to sign the project’s Program of Work and Estimate.
The unfinished monument is now littered with plastic cups and all sorts of rubbish.
“I’m afraid mapareha unya ni sa among 80 percent done na unta nga traffic lights apan sa wala’y pagduha-duha gipahunong ug gipaguba sa Mayor (I’m afraid this monument would be similar to our traffic lights project which was stopped by the Mayor despite being 80 percent complete),” the barangay captain said.
Buendia is allied with Bando Osmena-Pundok Kauswagan, the rival political party of the incumbent administration at City Hall.
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