Tigbauan dad seeks resignation of 'absentee' lady mayor
Iloilo -- "We are making this appeal not because we love you less but because we love Tigbauan more."
Such were the words of a former "loyalist" to an Iloilo town mayor disgruntled over the longtime absence of his chief executive and alleged millions in missing government funds. The official appeal now in Malacaņang and the office of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary.
In a highly emotional privilege speech, Tigbauan Councilor Romeo Ledesma, Vice Chairman of the Committee on Good Government, Public Ethics, Accountability and Civil Service echoed persistent calls for Mayor Myrna Torres to resign.
The appeal was primarily geared at the mayor"s incapacity to govern given her physical and medical condition brought by her previous stroke.
With matching candles lit before his speech, Ledesma went ahead to speak against what he termed was"mal-administration, mis-government, and an inept and namby-pamby kind of governance" for Tigbauan.
The last straw for him, he said, was the over P2.9 million in"condemnable shortage" in the town"s financial coffers.
"In a scale of every ten parts of the taxes collected in Tigbauan, only one part goes to the municipal coffers while nine parts are siphoned into private pockets!," excerpts of the government audit went as mentioned by Ledesma in his speech.
These occurrences and more, he continued, because Mayor Torres does not govern the town but stays and being kept on cordon sanitaire.
"Responsible for isolating and insulating the Mayor from the people whom she has sworn to serve is a breed of parasitic sychophants and toadies orbiting around her like a pack of lapdog satellites," Ledesma in his speech continued."Hence we have these massive shortages and pilferage of public funds in LGU-Tigbauan. Why so? The answer is very simple: Governance is too far, too remote and therefore Mayor Torres has lost control to supervise and execute good governance. When the cat is sick, absent and away, the mice will play."
To recall, similar official calls for the lady mayor"s resignation were also made in the past.
"This systematic and syndicated pilferage of Public Funds is the last straw! Good governance is at stake here in LGU-Tigbauan! You can push the people of Tigbauan only up to a certain point and no further!," he added.
Ledesma then went on to explain why he left the Torres group while adding that one incident where he was asked by the Mayor to make a nomination in her behalf as"outstanding mayor."
"Mayor, this cannot be because there is a criminal case filed against you," I informed her only to be reportedly rebuffed by the mayor"hindi totoo "yan (that is not true.)." No nomination was ever made because Ledesma said it was even him who helped Mayor Torres with her defense on said criminal case."And so I gave up on her because there are proofs positive that the Mayor"s stroke had impaired her memory and she wouldn"t listen to reason anymore."
As a final appeal, Councilor Ledesma left these words to Mayor Torres,"your place in history of Tigbauan is already assured. You are the first woman ever elected Mayor of this municipality. All your accomplishments and achievements are here to stay. Certainly no one can take these away from you. And so we appeal to you to please step down for good. The longer you stay as Mayor, the more these abuses will continue because some employees close to you with a few redeeming exceptions have their hidden agenda, their ulterior motives."
The News Today tried but failed to reach Mayor Torres for a reaction at press time.