Editorial: Credit-grabber, freeloader

THERE has been a lot of fuss lately over infrastructure projects around 4th District being claimed by Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez. A competing local newspaper which we will call as Lucy Mail would have us believe that the congresswoman has lined up half a billion pesos worth of projects for the district. 

But the public has to be wary of such a spin. In fairness, we have to give Lucy and her staff credit for their alacrity in owning projects at the risk of being branded as credit-grabbers and freeloaders. A what? Let’s brush up on our vocabulary. 

A credit grabber is someone who takes credit for others’ efforts while a freeloader is someone who exploits the generosity of other people (usually friends) to get anything for free (e.g. free ride, free lunch). In this case, Lucy is piggybacking on other agencies’ efforts and takes credit to earn easy brownie points. We have a Visayan term for that – dawat og limpyo.

Lucy manifested this tendency early on from the time she laid claim on the airport terminal project. It was unbelievable, knowing that her husband Richard made the airport’s sorry state a campaign issue, oblivious of the fact that bidding for the terminal project was already done.
 

Richard doesn’t have an idea about the project, but it suddenly became Lucy’s. We’re not saying credit should go to ex-Rep. Dodong Codilla, but those in the know would attest that the airport terminal was his reward from President Arroyo for supporting her from the impeachment moves in the House.
 

In another project, Lucy nitpicked on the opening of the newly-rehabilitated Bao Bridge. Did she really expect her constituents to believe she’s responsible for the repair when the contractor is a political opponent? Word is that she even wanted the work stopped to replace the contractor.
 

If we follow Lucy’s crooked logic, any project of the DPWH that is completed under her watch is hers. It’s her predecessor’s fault for not finishing his projects on time. So what’s the real story? This was what really happened. Until recently, backlogs are a norm in DPWH.
 

Delays were not only confined on Bao Bridge or other 4th Led projects under Rep. Codilla’s watch for that matter; delays were rampant nationwide. In Region 8 alone, there are 248 backlogs from 2008 to 2011. Reasons for these vary from late funding releases to realignments.
 

But the thing is, most of these projects were pursued, albeit belatedly. The flurry of road repairs we’re seeing have been programmed long before Lucy assumed office and were carried over on the second half of 2010 until last year because of late fund releases.
 

How can Lucy be responsible for these road works when the PNoy administration had been under-spending for most part of last year? Even the ongoing asphalt overlay activities everywhere are funded either from the Special Support Fund of the Motor Vehicle Users Charge or from the National Roads Improvement and Management Project II (NRIMP-2).
 

NRIMP-2 is the second phase of a program to upgrade and preserve the National Road System. DPWH will get an additional P1 billion for NRIMP-2 to pave 15,872 kms. of national arterial roads. Meaning to say, the road repairs we’re seeing in 4th District is part of a nationwide operation to upgrade the Philippines’ road networks.
 

These road works have been going on during Rep. Codilla term. That time, newspaper Lucy Mail bombarded 4th Led with criticisms because of the road re-blockings but has now turned silent because its benefactor is staking her claim on the construction activities.
 

Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez has nothing to do with these road repairs. Her only contribution is the ubiquitous billboards bearing a face so beautiful, no one would think it is owned by a credit-grabber-slash-freeloader congresswoman.
(West Leyte Weekly Express issue of Jan. 16-22, 2012)