Sigue scores Bing over non-selection in ICT confab
Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, chairman of the Committee on Communications and Technology, appealed to Mayor Evelio Leonardia to set aside politics because 2010 is still far from now.
The woman councilor felt that she was again politicized after she was not assigned to do the presentation on e-Services held in Manila recently, instead the city sent City Administrator Rogelio Balo to attend the conference.
“I see no reason why the e-Services presentation was not assigned to me when eversince nobody seem to take interest in handling my work for the ICT-BPO sector of Bacolod. I am just sad that the dark side of politics interfered with the need to generate more jobs for Bacolod especially with the global economic situation and considering the steady positive prospects of the outsourcing industry, especially in the non-voice based services,” Sigue said.
Since 2006, she have been preparing the presentations for Bacolod City during the e-Services International Conference and Exhibitions in Manila as it is always an opportunity to technically offer the value propositions of Bacolod and the whole province of Negros Occidental to potential BPO and KPO locators. Every year, representatives from the academe and human resource training sector, national agencies such as TESDA and DTI, and real estate would usually join her in the e-Services.
Aside from Mayor Leonardia, who presented on the e-Services in 2006 which she prepared, she has been doing the presentations for Bacolod in 2007 and 2008, in the absence of the mayor. This year, without any explanation, according to Sigue, she was deprived of her right as an elected official and vice chair of the Bacolod ICT Council under City Ordinance No. 440, to present Bacolod in the investor’s forum, even when the mayor was absent. The local ICT-BPO sector was quite surprised to know that Dr. Rogelio Balo, City Administrator did the presentation.
Balo on the other hand clarified that he was just a good soldier following the order of the mayor to do the presentation.
“Maybe the mayor believed that the presentation would not only cover ICT-BPO aspect but the city profile as a whole,” he added.
Vice-Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said it was the mayor’s prerogative to choose who will be the best person who can represent the city on that activity.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia also denied that there was politics behind Balo's selection as the city's representative in the e-Services conference saying that the City Administrator is doing this kind of presentations, among others, since then.