Welfare exec threatens to sue Acenas group

By NITZ ARANCON and SHIELA MAE BUTLIG
Correspondents

CITY hall’s socil welfare and development chief on Wednesday threatened to sue Vice Mayor Caesar Ian Acenas and councilors for the non-declaration of a state of calamity of villages in the city that were adversely affected by the dry spell.

Speaking during the Mediakone program at the Cagayan de Oro Press Club, Sabuga-a said the city council merely shrugged off Mayor Oscar Moreno’s request for the legislature to pass an ordinance that would allow city hall to release funds to aid farmers suffering from damages as a result of the El Niño phenomenon.

The El Niño-affected villages are Balubal, Pagatpat, San Simon, Lumbia, Pagalungan, Tagpangi, Bayanga, Mambuaya, Dansolihon, Tuburan, Pigsag-an, Tumpagon, Tignapoloan, FS Catanico, Canitoan, Besigan and Iponan.
Sabuga-a, who made a damage assessment and needs analysis (Dana), said some 6,309.09 hectares of farmlands were dried up, adversely affecting 3,931 households or some 17,836 people.

He said damages to agriculture were places at some P75.545 million. Despite all these, he said, the city council chose not to pass the proposed, tying city hall’s hands. The proposed ordinance would have allowed city hall to release some P56 million from its calamity fund. “For that, Acenas and Co. should answer in court. They deprived farmers of government aid just because of their politics,” he said.But Councilor Alexander Dacer said the figures submitted to the city council were unbelievable. He said the P75.545-million damage meant that “mas dako pa lugar ang damage sa Cagayan de Oro kaysa Misamis Oriental?”Dacer said barangay chairmen of the affected areas were even shocked at the apparently bloated figures.