Gwen ‘assures’ DILG: My energy is totally dedicated to helping LGUs

Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia assured the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) that “all of her energies were totally dedicated in helping out our local government units.”

Garcia was earlier the subject of a DILG statement saying that she should “channel her energy” into helping the seven LGUs of the province that failed in the road clearing assessment of DILG, instead of throwing tirades at the latter.

Read more: DILG to Cebu governor: Channel your energy into road-clearing

“The DILG chief advises Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to channel her energy into helping the seven Cebu LGUs to better comply with the Presidential directive rather than going on a tirade of complaints against the department’s road clearing efforts and other programs,” an Inquirer.net report quotes the DILG press statement.

Read more: Cebu governor says DILG should have helped towns to clear roads instead of merely assessing

Read more: BREAKING: 12 LGUs in Central Visayas fail DILG assessment

“If they believe that I am not channeling my energy anywhere, I assure you that we are really focusing on our 44 towns and 7 cities [which is] perhaps, the most number of LGUs in any province in the entire country. All of my energies are totally dedicated to helping our LGUs,” said Garcia in a press interview on Thursday, October 24.

But Garcia said she did not want to trade barbs with the DILG over the matter because the road clearing effort was a work in progress and that the LGU and the DILG must work hand-in-hand to complete it successfully.

“This is the first time nga gibuhat na, so you cannot say that everything will work perfectly in a manner that our mayors have followed the directive and the manner by which this has been properly evaluated in the part of DILG. This is a work in progress we should work together,” Garcia said.

Prior to this, Garcia lashed out at the DILG for allegedly failing to help the LGUs comply with the orders of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año that gave local chief executives 60 days to rid the roads and sidewalks of obstructions.

Read more: Gwen tells DILG: Your seminars disrupt LGU operations

Garcia has expressed disappointment with the rating system of the DILG and that the latter should have made progressive monitoring in the town’s compliance with the order as well as clearly lay down the mechanics of the assessment.

The governor also lashed out at the agency’s seminars which she tagged as a “disruption” to the operations of the local government units./dbs