Tacloban HUC forum goes to the barangay

By CHITO DELA TORRE
November 26, 2008

A highly urbanized city will not solve the problems of Tacloban City and its people.  It’s only a way to alleviate problems.

The city’s problems today are attributes of a HUC and not of a component city.

These were clarified by mayor Alfred S. Romualdez when he drove in to the unnamed interior road that divides Barangay 5 and Barangay 5-A where people from these two and other urban villages converged for a “Yes” campaign on the HUC this past Monday evening.

Alfred arrived with his pretty wife, city councilor Kristina Gonzales Romualdez.  His arrival prompted his father Alfredo, the immediate past mayor of Tacloban, to cut short his pro-HUC talk which was minced with jokes and anecdotes. (In one anecdote, the ex-mayor said Erap (former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada) had said that he had been an “ex-mayor, ex-senator, ex-Vice-President, and ex-President”, and then he became an “ex-convict”, but now is an “expert”.  The loud and prolonged applause and laughter showed that the audiences were intently listening to the past mayor.)

Uncle Bejo told his audiences that he would dwell only on three points or reasons why Tacloban should now be a highly urbanized city: political, financial, and social.  He also parried issues raised by the “No” proponents.  Saying that it’s now time that Tacloban detach itself from the Leyte provincial government, Tacloban will no longer need to wait for a long period of time for its ordinances to pass review by the provincial government through the sangguniang panlalawigan.

From that forum, interrupted by a sudden drizzle during the talk of Alfred which forced some in the audiences who were outside of the tents (set up at the “half court” of the forum venue hours earlier by city government personnel) to run for shelter, the nearly 300 listeners also learned that:

1.  There are now 33 HUCs in the country;

2.  Tacloban is lower in rank than that of Ormoc City’s which is an “independent component city”;

3.  Tacloban now has 217,000 population while Puerto Princesa in Palawan only had 207,000 population when it was granted its HUC status;

4.  there will be no motorized cabs for hire phase out, and no squatters eviction;

5.  taxation has nothing to do with HUC-hood, because it is already mandated in law that taxes will be raised by no more than 10 percent every five years;

6.  as a HUC, Tacloban will no longer be known as “Tacloban City, Leyte” but only as “Tacloban City”, with a “right of representation” of its own, apart from the First District of Leyte, in the House of Representatives; and

7.  as a HUC, Tacloban will already have a “director” or chief superintendent for the rank of its highest police officer, unlike today that the rank of the city police chief is only that of “superintendent” whereas in Ormoc City the police chief is ranked “director”.

The former mayor pointed out that at least three politicos who are opposed to HUC-hood are ventilating negative issues only for “personal reasons”.  One of them, whose name he mentioned, has even tried to “corner” the City Hall media after putting up his own media outfit subsequent to quitting a big media station but now might face estafa charges for delivering earnings to his previous business outfit.

A lady who spoke before Bejo enumerated situations which presently make Tacloban a regional center - like the most number of colleges and universities, hospitals and banks in the region.  Alfred, said he and the Taclobanons could not prevent the influx of population, otherwise, he would be made to answer for human rights violation.

Kristina, before presenting Alfred and introducing him as “pinakamabait at pinakaguwapo na mayor”, told of the massive development that resulted when her city became a HUC.  Alfred, on his turn, joked that he realized that after ten years of marriage he is still handsome.

The mixed audiences came to know, too, that it was Bejo who conceived the idea of making Tacloban a HUC; that the Romualdezes “gave” a lot to Robinsons, for this giant business firm to put up its own business in Marasbaras; that the owner of Robinsons is also the owner of Cebu Pacific; and that the former governor of Leyte, Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez, obtained a loan from World Bank to widen and improve further the water system at Pastrana, Leyte.

Councilor Pax Pacanan, who spoke after Alfred, reiterated what had already been said by the speakers before him, that the Tacloban having been a “component city” of Leyte for already 55 years but facing problems so enormous that only a higher rank, that of HUC, could respond to competently, Taclobanons should vote in favor of the HUC-hood come December 18, as from there, the city could start growing with huge investments coming in.  He also took that occasion to thank his audiences for their electoral votes for him in the past elections that sent him to the alderman’s hall.  Pax, a close and highly reliable friend of yours truly and many others, has been an active contributor to the development of Tacloban since his younger days in this city (until the Katig-uban Samareños ha Leyte or KASALE became a booming cooperative).  He comes from a prominent family in his hometown of Motiong, Samar.