WHILE almost everybody have moved on or are busy moving on from the divisiveness and viciousness of the recently-concluded elections, some just cannot be gracious in defeat.
In Manila, the propagation of lies continues and the attempts to dupe the people are still there.
The camp of one defeated mayoral bet in fact had the temerity to allege that he and those under his ticket have been cheated, even if the leads posted by Mayor-elect Honey Lacuna and Vice Mayor-elect Yul Servo are overwhelming.
For the record, Lacuna received a total of 538,595 votes. The far second placer, Alex Lopez, got 166,908 votes while the third placer, Amado Bagatsing, had 118,694 votes in total.
Lacuna’s lead over Lopez happens to be a staggering 371, 687 and funnily, if combined, the votes received by both Lopez and Bagatsing will still leave Lacuna with a very highly comfortable lead of 252,993 votes.
In the same breadth, Lacuna’s runningmate, now Vice Mayor-elect Yul Servo-Nieto, also had a huge lead against second placer Raymond Bagatsing. Servo was proclaimed with 582,942 votes in total while Raymond Bagatsing had only 183,684 votes. Servo therefore had a lead of 399,257 votes over Raymond.
The people of Manila have spoken and it is clear that they no longer fall for lies and smear campaign. They either have grown smarter to distinguish lies from truth or they are simply tired of being lied to by traditional politicians.
One of the lies that apparently did not work is the accusation that the city has a P15-billion debt.
Secretary to the Mayor Bernie Ang explained that due to the many worthwhile projects launched by the administration led by Isko Moreno and Honey Lacuna ad Mayor and Vice Mayor, respectively, the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and Land Bank of the Philippines offered loans.
According to Sec. Ang, the approved loan of the DBP was at P15 billion. Of the amount, P5 billion is payable in 20 years with a grace period of two years. The P10 billion difference on the other hand, may be paid in 15 years with a grace period of two years too.
The P15 billion was an offer and it has yet to be availed of by the city, should it choose to.
Even if the approved loan was P15 billion, only P4.5 billion had been released as of April 30, 2022.
The said P4.5 billion released by the DBP in April was allocated by the city government for its three housing projects — Tondominium 1, Tondominium 2 and Binondominium— as well as for the construction of the Bagong Ospital ng Maynila and the New Manila Zoo.
Meantime, although the LBP approved P10-billion as loanable amount for the city government of Manila, only P2.8 billion is yet to be borrowed by the city.
From the said amount, P1.8 billion will be allocated for the purchase of hospital equipment and P1 billion will be utilized for the “Land for the Landless Program.”
The budget used for the ‘ayuda’ or aids provided to the residents during the pandemic and for the establishment of the 344-bed capacity Manila COVID-19 Field Hospital, which is now benefitting COVID patients both Manilans and non-Manilans, did not come from the said loans.
This, plus all the other accusations hurled one after another to hurt the candidacy of Lacuna, obviously did not work in the case of Manila voters.
Judging from the final count, it is clear as day that the residents rejected the lies and went for performance, as exemplified by Lacuna in every post she has ever held in Manila.
Now considering how huge the leads of Lacuna and Servo are, alleging irregularities in the recent polls is simply incredulous.
However, we live in a free country and everyone has the right to make a fool of himself.
(Joke from Lawrence Mabitag of Antipolo, Rizal)
Nanay: Pedro, anak tawagan mo nga ang Tatay mo. Eto ang cellphone gamitin mo
Pedro: ‘Nay, babae po ‘yung sumagot!
Nanay: Sinasabi ko na nga ba at may babae ‘yang tatay nyo eh. Anong sabi nung babae?
Pedro: You have zero peso balance on your account… di ko na po tinapos mukha kasing matapobre eh!
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