(A Special Feature) Makati – Backroom talk among business owners and conversations have been going around the community on how the gerrymandering conspiracy was hatched in Barangay San Lorenzo. Here are excerpts placed together in a timeline
January of 2008 – Political planners at City Hall identified the personalities that opposed the current political dispensation in Makati. They identified two (2) Barangay Chairmen who were considered threats to future plans in 2010. One of the 2 was Joshua Santiago of Barangay San Lorenzo, a possible Vice Mayoral candidate in the next elections.
February of 2008 – The Makati City Council enacts City Ordinance 2008-001 that realigns the boundaries of 3 Barangays in Makati under the premise that Barangay San Lorenzo’s revenue is far too large and the 2 other Barangays would benefit. The subdivision map attached to the Ordinance however transfers more Residential areas (Ecology 1 and 3, Botanical Gardens and Makati Cinema Square Condominium) than businesses who generate the bulk of the revenue of Barangay San Lorenzo.
March to June 2008 – By law and procedure, the Ordinance is to be embraced by the affected Barangays via their respective Barangay Resolutions prior to the approval by the Mayor. Barangay Bankgal and Pio del Pilar immediately issued their respective Barangay Resolutions with the prodding of Liga ng mga Barangay President Constancia Lichauco (appointed by Mayor Binay). Barangay San Lorenzo did not issue a Resolution for the reason that several assemblies need to be conducted to appraise the constituents and to get their comments, sentiments and position. The first news reports on the issue appeared in June 2008.
July to October 2008 – Under increasing pressure from the Liga ng Mga Barangay President and City Hall, Barangay San Lorenzo officials went on their rounds to determine the sentiments of the residents and affected businesses. It was determined that majority of the residents that would be affected by the Ordinance did not want to be transferred to the other Barangays. This opposition was manifested by a letter of the Residents of Ecology village, signed by Residents and homeowners, addressed to the Mayor on October 15 and sent on the same date. The Residents of Botanical Gardens, an urban poor community comprised of 3 zones in front of Makati Medical City hospital, resoundingly voiced their opposition to the Ordinance with their own manifesto.
Within the same period, Makati City officials led by Lichauco did their rounds in the same communities. They also met with losing candidates Marlene Po (former Barangay Secretary) and Eman Recto (losing Barangay Chairman candidate) both of who are officials of the Barangay San Lorenzo Business Association (BSLBA). While Marlene Po together with Joshua Santiago conceived the organization, it was Joshua Santiago who recommended Eman Recto to be the Executive Director of BSLBA after the elections as a magnanimous move to unite the community.
October 2008 – Businesses along Pasong Tamo (Creekside, Cinema Square, Kings Court) started voicing their opposition but did not officially manifest their opposition, preferring the matter be discussed in an assembly. In this assembly, they would officially state their position.
In this same period a white paper was circulated in the community accusing the Barangay Chairman and its Councilors of corruption. This involved accusations on the purchase of street lamps and Assumption waiting sheds. The white paper was distributed to residents and business owners outside of the Barangay Hall on the assembly day causing the assembly to be derailed most specially on the discussion of the Ordinance.
These accusations saw print in all the major newspapers , starting on 27 October just two days after the botched Barangay Assembly. On the 29th of October, news reports already included a statement from the Mayor saying that he (Binay) could only act on the issue if somebody files a complaint.
Within the same period, visits were made by Lichauco to Botanical Garden, but now with Barangay Kagawad Norman Golez and Ernesto Moya.
November 2008 – On November 06, Kagawads and the losing candidate for Barangay chair Eman Recto filed the complaint based on the claims of another losing candidate, Marlene Po. The Kagawads who signed the complaint on the alleged anomalies are also the same Kagawads who were in charge of the Bids and Awards Committee for the street lamps.
It is confirmed that one of the Kagawads who initiated the complaint approached the Barangay Chairman and told him that if he signed a Resolution approving the Ordinance, the complaint will be withdrawn.
On the morning of November 11, Residents of Barangay San Lorenzo in Botanical Garden brought a cake to the Mayors residence to greet him on his birthday. They were made to wait the whole morning outside the residence. Upon seeing them, they were verbally told by the Mayor that their fate had been sealed and that they were being transferred.
On the same day – Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado sent the summons to the Barangay Chairman giving him 15 days to answer the complaint
Also on the same day as the birthday of Mayor Binay, November 11, 2008, the same Kagawads who filed and signed the complaint against the Barangay Chairman, met, drafted and formalized Resolution 89 embracing Ordinance 2008-001 without the consent of the Barangay Chairman and other Kagawads.
December 2008 – Residents astoundingly made their stand by stating their opposition to the Resolution and the Ordinance. They flocked to the Barangay Hall looking for the Councilors. On one occasion they chanced upon Kagawad Jocelyn Hernandez who said she did not know the implications of what she signed and that she would withdraw her signature. To date she has not and has not been seen near the premises of the barangay hall.
Makati Cinema Square business also sent a letter to the Mayor but to date, no reply has been received.
Was there a conspiracy for gerrymandering?
All the events seem circumstantial if taken on its own merit and time of occurrence. But, once it is put together in a broader timeline, parts and players start falling together like pieces of a puzzle. Was this a planned political move or individual actions that just glued itself together to look like a conspiracy?
Councilor Jun Jun Binay is set to run for Vice Mayor. Supporters of the Mayor see the Barangay San Lorenzo Chairman as a strong threat should he run for the position as well in 2010.
The majority of the residents who vote and participate in the elections are from Ecology and Botanical Gardens. Only the maids, helpers and drivers in San Lorenzo Village vote according to the son of Kagawad Brigido Sibug, who lost in the last election.
Attribution: (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view_article.php?article_id=97515)
The areas with the largest active voting population are the same areas being detached from Barangay San Lorenzo and transferred to adjacent Barangays. So is this gerrymandering?!
As one resident puts it, even if they transferred all these areas, the taxes collected would not be sufficient to cater to all the residents in the Barangays involved. The true revenue is derived from the business in the CBD, not the residential areas or small business along Pasong Tamo.
All the players were former allies of the Barangay Chairman. Marlene Po was a former Barangay Secretary, Eman Recto a former Kagawad and principal signatory in the street lamp project, Norman Golez, brother of Malacanang deputy spokesperson Anthony Golez, also a Kagawad who was in the Bids and Awards Committee for the same project as Ernesto Moya and Brigido Sibug. Kagawad Guia Flaminiano, who now heads the newly constituted bids and awards committee, whose mother a former Kagawad aligned with Santiago.
Who apart from Lichauco were pulling the strings for the approval of the Ordinance? In a copy of the Ordinance in question, already signed by the Mayor, Councilor Jun Jun Binay was conveniently on vacation leave as well as Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado.
Why did the 5 Kagawads prepare and sign a Resolution fully knowing that the community opposed it? And why pass one on such a date as the birthday of the Mayor? Coincidence? – Or where they cajoled, scared, paid or plain ignorant as one had already admitted.
What was the purpose of the conspiracy? A mere power grab on the part of the 5 Kagawads for control of barangay committees as already exhibited in the Bids and Awards Committee.
Residents are still demanding for an explanation for their actions on the Resolution or they may get more than just a pair of shoes thrown at them!
PAG/JMT/ER
San Lorenzo Village Monitor 