Oca ‘advises’ Bambi: Live up to your oath

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

MAYOR Oscar Moreno yesterday lashed back at Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Vincente Emano, saying city and provincial officials need not argue about whether or not the government should rid the capitol roads of illegal structures and obstructions.

“In his (Emano’s) oath of office, he promised to enforce the law,” Moreno said.

Moreno broke his silence days after Emano called city hall officials “inutile” even as the capitol came out with a litany of city hall failures, including its failure to address the worsening problem on vehicular traffic congestion that began in the city in the ’90s.

Emano’s tirades were a response to a statement made by Antonio Resma, a special investigator at the local legal office and spokesman of a city hall-led demolition team, that his group would be forced to rid the capitol roads of illegal structures and obstructions unless the capitol acted on the problem.

Resma’s pronouncement did not sit well with Emano who saw it as a threat from city hall. The governor then warned city hall against carrying out road-clearing operations in the capitol compound, threatened to take legal action, and asserted that the area is under the capitol’s jurisdiction.

Moreno, for his part, advised Emano to consult a lawyer about his position on the road obstructions in the capitol compound.

He said city hall really has no intention of performing the tasks and responsibilities of the provincial government. He said neither does he want to lecture his counterpart in the province about why local governments really need to clean-up and undertake road-clearing operations.

He said refusal by any local government executive to demolish illegal structures around his office is tantamount to not living up to one’s oath of office.

Moreno gave Emano an unsolicitied advice: “Mas maayo iya nalang nang gubaon ang mga illegal structure diha saiyang area. Ipakita niya nga ang bala-od iya sang gatumanon.”

By doing that, he said, the governor would be following laws and the orders that came from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and President Duterte, and avoid a situation that would make him feel insulted.

“Dili nalang maghulat sa demolition team sa city hall nga ma-oy mo-demolish sa mga illegal structure sa kapitolyo aron dili siya ma-insulto,” he said.

Moreno said if city hall was built in a Misamis Oriental town, he would see to it that local laws are followed. In that scenario, he said, city hall would also rid roads around it of illegal structures.

“Subay gihapon ta sa bala-od sa lungsod kay the law must apply to all equally. Walay pabor-pabor,” he said.

But the problem, according to Moreno, is if Emano “believes that he lives in the different world.”

He added: “Kita sa gobyerno dili man mahimo nga la-in la-in, lahi ang gobyerno sa munisipyo, lahi ang gobyerno sa probinsiya, lahi ang gobyerno sa syudad. Usa ra kita ka gobyerno sa tibo-ok nasud.”