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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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Friday, March 9, 2018
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“I THINK may ma-file talaga na charges.”
Strong words or just lip service coming from Department of the Interior and Local Government or DILG director for Region 6 Anthony Nuyda on the current shit (pun intended) affecting the “cesspool” aka Boracay.
But are charges really going to be filed against erring local government executives or just the lowly clerks?
Boracay is now one of the flavors of the month i.e. Dengvaxia Genocide, Sereno Impeachment, Bongbong Marcos electoral protest, and Bimby’s circumcision to name a few.
This is the Philippines and the favorite dessert of the natives is halo-halo so one should not be surprised.
Moi is wondering why only now is the DILG taking such a keen interest on the shit (again pun intended) that Boracay is in, just because President Rodrigo Duterte called it a “cesspool” and wants to close it and clean it up.
It’s not that the shit in Boracay just happened because the President took notice; the unscrupulous resort owners have been dumping their waste into the beaches of Boracay long before Rodrigo Duterte even thought of running for president of the republic.
It’s not also out of the goodness of their hearts and sudden epiphany on saving Boracay’s fragile ecosystem that the DILG created the Boracay Investigating Team (BIT) as an exercise of the department’s supervisory power over local government units (LGUs).
Here are excerpts from the March 6 issue of Panay News:
Charges would certainly be filed against local government officials liable for the environmental problems in Boracay Island, according to Director Anthony Nuyda of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 6.
The identities of these officials would be known in 60 days, according to Nuyda, a member of the Boracay Investigating Team (BIT) that DILG officer-in-charge Eduardo Año formed as an exercise of the department’s supervisory power over local government units (LGUs).
President Rodrigo Duterte blamed “local government units” for Boracay’s pollution problems and threatened to charge them with gross negligence but gave no specifics.
Boracay Island is under the jurisdiction of Malay, Aklan and concomitantly, the provincial government of Aklan.
“We can’t say for now what charges would be filed. The investigation is ongoing. We are gathering documents. But definitely there is some neglect of duty,” said Nuyda yesterday.
The President’s order was clear, he added – identify the culpable officials.
While Año himself gave no specifics as to who are being investigated, he said the BIT probe would include government officials and employees “directly involved” in issuing permits to Boracay establishments.
The investigation started last week.
Well and good. But really, will all these attention DILG is giving to Boracay happen if President Rodrigo Duterte did not specifically mention that Boracay is already becoming a “cesspool”?
Boracay is a part of the Municipality of Malay, Aklan and in every municipality, city and province in the country the DILG has a presence to assist LGUs.
In the Municipality of Malay of which Boracay is a part the DILG has what they call a Municipal Local Government Operations Officer or MLGOO.
Currently the DILG’s MLGOO in Malay is Racefin O. Suco who is most probably up to speed with the situation of Boracay but strangely quiet.
The issue of waste and sewage water being dumped by unscrupulous resort owners in Boracay was already the talk of everyone who has been to Boracay more than 10 years ago and ask anybody who just came from Boracay and chances are the conversation will go to the pollution and the smell of the waters there.
The DILG’s Central Office and Region 6 office are no strangers to Boracay as they hold seminars, team building and all sorts of activities in the island. Now don’t tell me that Director Anthony Nuyda and Aklan Provincial Director Roy Defiño, during one of their activities in Boracay, are not aware of the smell and shit literally in the white sand beaches of the island.
As accountable civil servants it behoves upon them to at the very least bring to the attention of their proper counterpart agency if something is amiss.
Why wait for the President to call their attention, media (this columnist included) has been calling attention to the plight of Boracay long before Rodrigo Duterte became president.
Moi supposes that if the Precinct Count Optical Scanners or PCOS machines were successful in making Mar “Daang Matuwid” Roxas president, Tonyboy here would not come out with statements like “I think may ma-file talaga na charges.”
Looking at the people in DILG’s Boracay Investigating Team or BIT, it seems moi has seen a familiar name: Trial and Investigation Division officer-in-charge Maria Elena Quebral.
The rest moi would not know the difference between them and a fig tree.
“Ina” or Atty. Maria Elena Quebral, moi knew her when she was the Legal Officer of DILG Region 4 in the mid-‘90s.
We’ve shared a few no lots of beers; she is not only beautiful and sexy but feisty and uncompromising when it comes to performing her job which she takes very seriously.
And that is bad news for the corrupt local government officials of Malay responsible for the shit of Boracay. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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