ILOILO City – The long-simmering tension between Mayor Raisa Treñas and Cong. Julienne Baronda has erupted into a public word war, with both officials trading barbs over infrastructure projects that were alleged to have worsened flooding in the city.
Treñas challenged Baronda and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 6 to release a complete list of projects implemented in Iloilo City since 2019, stressing it is the congressional representative who “requests, identifies, and sponsors” such projects.
“It is the responsibility of the congresswoman to account for and identify all these projects, since every single one implemented by the Iloilo City District Engineering Office (ICDEO) originates from the request and sponsorship of the district’s representative,” Treñas said, noting even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had flagged several city projects as “delayed” and “palpak.”
The mayor said she could “firmly speak on this matter with personal knowledge and experience as I have served as Chief of Staff for my father who had been a member of Congress and sat as a member of the Commission on Appointments back then.”
Baronda countered by stressing she has long “advocated the principles of transparency and accountability.
“Anent the said principles, I suggest that DPWH release any and all records about the infrastructure projects in the Lone District of Iloilo City, as it is the entity that keeps the records of these projects,” she said in a statement.
Baronda also demanded transparency from the mayor’s camp: “If Mayor Treñas-Chu also believes in the principles I advocate and given her personal knowledge as the then-Chief of Staff of her father, I also demand that she release all the records of all projects (goods and infrastructure), including all the mayors permit, during the time of her father as congressman [June 30, 2010 – June 30, 2019] and mayor of Iloilo City [April 1992 – June 30, 1992; June 30, 2001 – June 30, 2010; June 30, 2019 – June 30, 2025].”
According to Baronda, former mayor and congressman Jerry Treñas “spent a quarter of a century in power yet miserably failed in solving the flooding problems of the city.”
Mayor Treñas quickly fired back: “Cong. Julienne Baronda is once again trying to divert the issue. The clear concern of the Ilonggos today is the status of her projects.”
The mayor also emphasized that projects undertaken under her father’s leadership were “standing, functioning, and serving the people.”
She insisted the city government’s records have always been open, transparent, and cleared by the Commission on Audit with an “unmodified audit observation for the first time in the history of Iloilo City.”
“Instead of rewriting history and pointing fingers, Congresswoman Baronda should answer a straightforward question: Diin na ang matuod-tuod nga benepisyo nga gindala sang imo mga proyekto para sa Iloilo City? The Ilonggos deserve clarity, not excuses,” she added.
To underscore her point, Treñas cited the slope mitigation project in Barangay Buntatala, Jaro, under the Uswag Ilonggo party-list, which she said followed engineering standards.
“Ginbisita naton ang proyekto ni Cong. Jojo Ang sa Buntatala, Jaro kun sa diin, makit-an nga ini sunod gid sa standards sang isa ka slope mitigation design,” Treñas wrote in a Facebook post.
She added: “Siling gani ni Buntatala Barangay Captain, Starlene Hosenilla, kuntani ginpareho na lang sini ang design sang proyekto ni Cong. Baronda.”
“We call for accountability sa tanan nga stakeholders kay ang kwarta sang tawo, dapat ginagamit sang ensakto,” said Mayor Treñas./PN
