“I have better things to do.”
This was how Cebu Gov. Hilario “Junjun” Davide III declined to engage his political rival One Cebu gubernatorial bet Winston Garcia in a debate.
Garcia threw the challenge at Davide yesterday, after he agreed to participate in two debates, one organized by a local radio station on April 8 and another, the Mega Cebu candidates’ forum on April 20.
“Thanks, but no thanks. Magdala pud siya’g notes? (Is he also going to bring notes?) He can debate with himself or with his paid block-timers. I have better and more important things to do,” he said in a text message.
The governor has consistently refused to participate in debates. Davide said debates are futile because the Garcia camp has frequently been attacking him in the newspapers.
“Let the people judge who will be the next governor in the May elections,” he said in an earlier interview.
Garcia, in a press statement, said he wanted Davide to come forward with the facts on his claim that the provincial government has provided free health care services to Cebuanos under his leadership.
He cited the case of a one-year-old girl who died in the Minglanilla District Hospital last November 2015 because her mother did not have P500 to pay for the medicines.
Garcia also brought up the case of a four-year-old boy who died in the same hospital after having been administered the wrong medicine.
He said the debate would explore the “depth of his rival’s incompetence and inaction on many aspects of governance, particularly on health care, economics, and infrastructure development.”
Davide’s refusal to face him in a debate runs contrary to the governor’s supposed advocacy for transparency, Garcia said.
“Either he is hiding something or is afraid of being asked to answer for his empty, failed promises that won him in May 2013,” he added.
In the recent LP sorties in the province, Governor Davide promised to continue giving free healthcare services to indigent Cebuanos under PhilHealth’s point-of-care and No Balance Billing programs.
Davide also promised to improve all 16 district and provincial hospitals in Cebu.
The governor said he will also prioritize proposals for a Trans-Axial Highway in the province, which were shelved earlier this year because the Capitol had “other priorities.”
“Three years have passed and he has not done anything about these, and now he is doing it again. We have yet to even see the program he has planned for the overall development of Cebu,” said Garcia.
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