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CEBU CITY, Philippines - A critic of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia on Tuesday questioned the inclusion of her father and brother among the Capitol’s Garbo sa Sugbo awardees, while her allies defended her Suroy Suroy tourism caravans.
The award should be given to people who accomplished something for the province, Crisologo Saavedra said.
He said the governor’s father, Representative Pablo Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district), has done nothing for Cebu, not even during his stint as governor, and only inherited the accomplishments of his predecessor, Lito Osmeña.
“It was Lito Osmeña who generated more than P2 billion for the province. It was that money that (Gwen Garcia) used to construct the Cebu International Convention Center,” Saavedra said.
In the case of the governor’s brother, Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) general manager Winston Garcia, Saavedra said he is hardly a “crusader for good governance” that the Capitol said he was.
Many GSIS pensioners have been complaining of the management of the agency, particularly the delayed pension payments.
“Winston Garcia has done nothing for the province except the GSIS card,” Saavedra said, referring to the agency’s use of electronic identification cards aimed at speeding up GSIS transactions.
“If he is to be awarded for his strong stance against Meralco (Manila Electric Co.), that is not good governance... He wanted to take over Meralco for obvious reasons,” Saavedra said.
If anyone among the Garcias should be awarded, it is the governor’s other brother, Capitol security consultant Byron, Saavedra said.
“(Byron) was instrumental in making the province popular with his dancing prisoners,” Saavedra said, referring to the provincial inmates featured on YouTube.
“That is the only accomplishment the province has done since Gwen Garcia took over as governor of the Province of Cebu,” he added.
Meanwhile, mayors of two towns included in the Capitol’s previous Suroy Suroy Sugbo tourism caravans defended it against criticisms of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Tuburan Mayor Constancio Suezo III, who is identified with the province’s opposition, said the Suroy Suroy changed the image of his town from a feared location to a tourism destination.
“Before, when people think of Tuburan, they think of insurgency. After the Suroy Suroy, we’ve been receiving a lot of visitors and potential investors,” Suezo said.
Aloguinsan Mayor Cynthia Moreno said the town’s “existence was barely known before the Suroy Suroy.” She credited the caravan.
Mayor Osmeña criticized the program for doing little for tourism in the towns and said it only served to promote Governor Garcia.
“The mayor is entitled to his own opinion, but he can’t just make derogatory statements,” said Provincial Board Member Agnes Magpale.
Magpale, chairperson of the Provincial Board’s committee on tourism, said the mayor was in error when he said the towns spent P300,000 to prepare for the arrival of 200 visitors.
Badian, for example, spent only P70,000 plus some contributions from private individuals to welcome Suroy-Suroy guests, Magpale said.
She said the Capitol has even stopped releasing subsidies to the towns during Suroy-Suroy activities because they were already capable of making their own preparations.
“The mayors try to outdo each other. It brings out the best in our municipalities,” she said
