By Egay Uy
THE indefatigable Oscar “Oca” Salcedo celebrated his 60th birthday last August 22. Among those who greeted him on his special day were Mayor Oca Moreno, Rep. Klarex Uy, Rep. Maxie Rodriguez, his XUHS ’70 batchmates, his BCBP family, and a host of several other well wishers. Of course, his family was there, with wife Linda beaming with her radiant smile.
Belated happy birthday, Oca!
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After having been informed that it over-billed the city, Basura at Iba Pa (BAI) suddenly served notice to City Hall that it was unilaterally rescinding its contract with the City Government, saying that it was quitting effective at four o’clock in the afternoon of August 23, 2013, the day it wrote city hall. However, word had it that BAI stopped collecting garbage city-wide effective at 10 o’clock in the evening of the previous day.
It appears that the strategy of BAI, and obviously of somebody who does not want to see a hapsay Cagayan de Oro, is to make the city disorderly and littered with garbage, just like how it was under the toppled administration.
The pattern is quite obvious. When Hapsay Dalan was launched on July 1, 2013 with positive results, those who did not want to see a hapsay city went on the offensive using paid hacks and agitating people to disobey the law.
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I have not seen the note itself but the vice mayor reportedly ordered (“I am ordering you!”) city hall’s human resource officer, Dionne Gersana, to extend the employment of the city council’s job order and casual employees to December 31, 2013.
If at all, that order was illegal and was nothing more than a display of arrogance on the part of the vice mayor. Mayor Moreno rightfully described it as ultra vires, which means in excess of legal capacity. Just like a minor who cannot yet act with legal effects.
When Mr. Gersana, et. al., were summoned to the city council last August 19 to explain the alleged tampering of the requests for employment of city council employees, the vice mayor banged the rostrum twice which many interpreted as a show of arrogance and an inflated sense of self-importance.
Some others have observed that as a public servant, the vice mayor must not forget that he took his oath to serve the people of Cagayan de Oro, not one man or one group. He ought to act like an elective public official, not like an arrogant minor.