TAGUMEÑOS, A RARE BREED OF FILIPINOS

If you want to open more roads, now is the appropriate time when Tagum has not yet reached its highest peak of urbanization. For a dynamic and fast growing city like Tagum, a myopic leader who lacks foresight may find himself inextricably trapped in its growth with no elbow room to move. Thus, this early Mayor Uy, like a trail blazing settler, opened new roads which may not be of much use today but will definitely be frontiers of development in the near future.

A case in point is the Capitol Avenue that traverses Garciaville onwards to 3rd Avenue. Early on, there were already plans to build this road but it never materialized. When finally it was constructed Garciaville was already there with its narrow road. So now we have a four-lane avenue emanating from the gate of the Capitol that narrows to two- lane as it traverses Garciaville. No way can the government widen the road to four lanes as there are already houses alongside. Had early local executives built the road early we could have a wide avenue connecting the Capitol to Sobrecarey Street.

Mayor Rey T. Uy has opened more roads than all the mayors before him combined. Some 50 new roads had been added to the existing road networks in the city. With all these new roads crisscrossing the city no place in Tagum can be considered remote as to be inaccessible to motorized vehicles.

While other local government units’ road projects are hampered by the high cost of land acquisition, some even had to invoke the government’s exclusive right of imminent domain to acquire them, the city government of Tagum under Mayor Uy did not experience similar problem.

The city government of Tagum does not resort to expropriating private lands where a road is to traverse. That would be very expensive and a big drain to city coffers considering the high cost of land today. The money that should have been used to pay the owners for the cost of the land is used instead to defray the cost of paving the road either by asphalt or concrete.

Credit should go to Mayor Uy for acquiring these properties for free. Armed with the sincere desire to serve the people, the impeccable record of corrupt-free governance, Mayor Uy personally talks to the land owners, knocks at their hearts and explain the benefits the project can give to the people.

Mayor Uy is not even a glib talker like a salesman out to close a sale. Yet a man of few words that he is, Mayor Uy is so persuasive that he gets the nod of the land owners without the city government paying for the cost. In most cases land owners are just too happy and even volunteer to part away with the portion of his/her property for free.

Mayor Uy’s experience only proves that Tagumeños are a rare breed of Filipinos. The recent conduct of a series of public hearings for the proposed revise revenue code attended by almost all sectors where none registered an opposition to the increase in taxes and fees is a manifestation of the people’s desire to help their city.

All that is needed is a good and credible leader. Mayor Rey T. Uy has that quality. And more.

First round Victory

News filtering out of the highly secretive Daneco management disclosed that Mayor Uy is winning in the first round of his one-man war against the electric cooperative’s exorbitant billing for the city.

News have it that the Daneco management is scrapping its per-post bill for metering and consumer charges which were the object of Mayor Uy’s complaint for being unfair and without basis.

As a consequence the management reportedly also decided to forego with its stupid plan to purchase 3000 units electric meters which it originally planned to install to individual lamp post where street lights are mounted and which are being paid on a flat or fix rate basis.

In the city’s radio program aired over DXDN every Sunday at 9am and over 88.7FM Monday to Friday at 8am anchored by yours truly, I got a deluge of angry text messages from irate consumers expressing their indignation when I devoted three days of the program exposing the findings of the NEA comprehensive audit report.

All are one in condemning the board of directors and the management for incurring huge loses by the cooperative amounting to more than a hundred million pesos.

All are also one in saying that the city should avail of the services of Davao Light and Power Co. instead of Daneco which made a milking cow out of the city not to mention its lousy service.

If the general manager who mole my mole says, runs the cooperative like a despotic king (anyone who disagrees with his style of management gets punished) and the board of directors do not make amends and curb the continued huge loses it wont be far when consumers shall rise against them.

All it takes is just one credible leader to initiate the move. Once started, the move will surely snowball considering that the consumers have had enough of their years of incompetence.

Ed G. Valdez
Email address: egvaldez1208@yahoo.com.ph