Cartagena slams present city officials for unresolved problems
Most of the officials and political leaders in Iloilo City belong to the same group, there’s not much opposition, but why does the city can’t move forward?
This was the question raised by lawyer Dan Cartagena amid a multitude of problems faced by the city residents in the past years.
Cartagena, who is vocal on social issues affecting the people, was one of those who witnessed the television coverage of the funeral of former Pres. Corazon Aquino at the Jaro Cathedral yesterday.
Two weeks before Aquino died, Cartagena sponsored a mass for the healing of the former president at the Mandurriao church.
Cartagena cited the unending problems on traffic congestion, proliferation of illegal drugs, lack of classrooms, lack of water supply, unstable power supply and costly electricity rates, and clogged drainage system which causes flooding, among others.
Cartagena also lamented that the city does not have a City Hall despite its status as a highly-urbanized city.
“The City Hall is our show window to our guests and visitors, it is quite embarrassing that our seat of government is located in a mall and in the Iloilo Terminal Market,” Cartagena observed.
Cartagena also took notice of the anomalous socialized housing project of the city government in Pavia, Iloilo which ended into a waste of people’s money.
He lamented that for more than eight years the city officials have done nothing to resolve the problem. Cartagena said the city government could have done measures to give justice to the P125 million people’s money that was wasted in the said graft-ridden project.
“Apparently, there is no opposition in our present set of officials that is why I’m wondering why these problems cannot be resolved,” Cartagena said.
Cartagena noted that there was good working relations among the city’s congressman, mayor, vice mayor, and Sangguniang Punglungsod because most of them belong to the same political party.
Cartagena added that even majority of the punong barangays are aligned with the present set of officials.
“Everybody seems to cooperate but why can’t we move forward?” Cartagena lamented.