ILOILO City – Camarines Sur 2nd District’s Cong. Luis Raymund Villafuerte called out the Sangguniang Panalalawigan (SP) of Aklan for its resolution declaring him persona non grata with three other congressmen relative to the Boracay Island Development Authority (BIDA) bill.
Though the provincial legislative body already withdrew the resolution, its action still got the ire of Villafuerte who noted that the resolution was passed even after the four congressmen already withdrew House Bill (HB) 1085 seeking the creation of BIDA on Aug. 3.
“The despicable antics of the members of the Aklan provincial board only highlights their political immaturity and idiocy,” read part of the four solons’ official statement posted by Villafuerte on his Facebook page.
Villafuerte described the SP members as being “too melodramatic” in filing a resolution on Aug. 8 declaring Villafuerte, Tsuyoshi Anthony G. Horibata of 1st District Of Camarines Sur, Miguel Luis R. Villafuerte of the 5th District of Camarines Sur, and Bicol Saro’s Rep. Nicolas C. Enciso VIII persona non-grata.
On Aug. 9, the Aklan SP held a special session withdrawing the said resolution.
“Rather than resort to histrionics, Aklan’s SP members should have first taken steps that would have settled the issue in an intelligent manner and prevented them from ending up with eggs on their faces,” the statement read.
First, Villafuerte said, had the SP made an effort to check the developments on the BIDA proposal in the House or with Aklan 2nd District’s Cong. Ted Haresco, they would have known that their resolution was unnecessary because they as the bill’s proponents had officially withdrawn the filing of it on Aug. 3 or nearly a week before their “superfluous resolution” was passed on Aug. 8.
Second, he opined that the Aklan elective officials should have lobbied against the congressional passage of the said proposal by seeking an audience with HB 1085 proponents to explain why they were not in favor of it.
“Their misguided move certainly didn’t speak well of them as elective officials of Aklan. It makes us wonder why they had resorted to this melodrama because this was not the first time that such a proposal to create BIDA was introduced in the House,” the statement added.
They also cited that HB 9826, which was authored by over 200 solons led by Davao City’s Cong. Paolo Duterte, son of then President Rodrigo Duterte, was passed by the House on third and final reading (on the basis of the approved Committee Report (CR) No. 1084) and then transmitted to the Senate for its concurrence.
Villafuerte noted the he himself had filed his own version of the measure — HB 7280 — in the 18th Congress.
“If my memory serves me right, we heard nary a peep from these elective officials of Aklan in all those committee and plenary sessions that were held in the 18th Congress prior to the approval of HB 9826 on third and final reading. Where were these supposed anti-BIDA Aklanons when us lawmakers were discussing the measure?” he asked.
“They should have voiced their opposition to the bill and brought their concerns to our attention back then before the bill was passed on third and final reading. Again, why only now? Why only now when their collective foot-stomping has been rendered moot by our earlier move to withdraw our bill?” he added./PN
