Celso to opposition: Spare Zambo from your political woes
Mayor Celso Lobregat lambasted the local opposition for spreading reports that Lakas presidential bet Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro cancelled his trip to the city due to security reasons, as he described the tale as “desperate moves by desperate people”.
“If you have political problems, do not paint a negative picture of the city. This is a very negative news item for their presidential candidate, if ever Teodoro is their candidate,” Mayor Lobregat strongly declared in a press conference yesterday morning in the wake of a banner story published in local newspapers saying that Gibo cancelled his scheduled Zamboanga sortie today because of alleged security threats.
Lobregat expressed dismay that the local opposition is making up stories that Sec. Teodoro is not coming to the city because of security reasons when in fact the presidential candidate even went to Maguindanao at the height of the Ampatuan problem. “This (report) is very damaging to Sec. Teodoro himself and this paints a bad picture of the city which is not true”.
Few minutes before the courtesy call 11 a.m. yesterday, the advance party of Lakas vice presidential candidate Edu Manzano conferred with the mayor to discuss details about Manzano’s courtesy call on the chief executive today.
“Edu Manzano is coming to Zamboanga tomorrow and he is paying a courtesy call on the city mayor, you mean to say Edu is not scared of coming to Zamboanga and Gibo is scared to come?”, the exasperated Lobregat said.
The published news item on Gibo even quoted the local Lakas officials as calling on the city government to improve the peace and order situation adding that the alleged poor peace and order situation in the city scares away people.
“I will say this is a made up story because knowing Sec. Teodoro he is one person who is not scared to go to any place because of security reasons and so I am telling you these people—the local politicians are the ones spreading lies, giving misinformation to the public”, the mayor said.
He stressed that if the local Lakas together with its affiliate Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) are sincerely supporting Sec. Teodoro, then they should not have come up with such stories.
As the city’s chief executive, Lobregat said he had to react to the news report because of a statement in the article that calls on the city government to take drastic measures to improve the peace and order situation in Zamboanga. “So culpa pa del ciudad ara, because of their embarrassment, ta ase sila umit con el ciudad”.
He called on the opposition to solve their own problems and not to cover up their embarrassment by making up stories that damage the image of the city. “They have a problem. If eventually they will be the ones to be endorsed by Lakas-Kampi, it’s no problem, basta no mas man umit konel ciudad, no mas ase malo konel ciudad”.
As this developed, Vice Mayoralty aspirant Councilor Cesar Iturralde said what the opposition did was a disservice to the people of Zamboanga and to the Lakas presidential bet.
“What they did is really a great disservice to the city kay ta ase sila umit con el interes del pueblo, hinde daw safe el ciudad simply because they have problems in the party”, Iturralde said during the press conference.
Meanwhile, Lakas Senatorial bet Lito Lapid in a courtesy call to Mayor Lobregat yesterday afternoon denied that Sec. Teodoro would give such a reason for not coming to the city today stressing that there might be some sectors who merely want to destroy the presidential bet. (Sheila Covarrubias)