Women execs scuffle at budget meet
SURIGAO CITY—A meeting called to discuss Dinagat Island’s funding woes on Friday turned ugly when the confrontation between Vice Gov. Geraldine Ecleo and Surigao provincial budget officer Maria Gay Cotiangco became physical.
The meeting, held at the Surigao del Norte Capitol here, was attended by officials of both provinces and presided over by Rene Burdeos, director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in Caraga region.
During the meeting, Burdeos said that a memorandum of agreement between officials of Dinagat and Surigao del Norte for the funding of Dinagat’s district hospital, whose employees have been working unpaid for a year now, was being discussed when the confrontation erupted.
Dinagat’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), which amounted to about P100 million, was scrapped from the 2011 national budget because its status as a province has yet to be settled by the Supreme Court with finality. It now relies on Surigao del Norte, its mother province, to fund crucial infrastructure projects such as the 50-bed district hospital.
Witnesses told Inquirer that in the middle of the heated exchange between Ecleo and Cotiangco, a physical confrontation occurred.
In her subsequent report to the Surigao City police, Cotiangco said Ecleo had slapped her, pulled her hair and clawed her face.
Ecleo told reporters she might have grabbed Cotiangco’s hair when they scuffled but denied she slapped her.
The two also had different versions on how the trouble started: Ecleo said Cotiangco attacked her when she repeatedly told her to shut up. She said she was talking during the meeting but the budget officer had interrupted her.
In her version, Cotiangco said it was Ecleo who attacked her when she replied after being told to shut up.
In Burdeos’ story, the two officials pulled each other’s hair. Burdeos said he did not see Ecleo slapping Cotiangco.
He also said he could not categorically say who started it all.
Cotiangco said Surigao del Norte provincial administrator Primolito Plaza and DILG provincial director Domingo Bulabog could testify on her side. None of these officials, however, would comment on the incident when asked by the Inquirer.
Dinagat’s financial woes started with the flip-flop decision of the Supreme Court on the legality of its conversion into a province.
The high court had earlier declared as valid the 2006 law that created the province of Dinagat when it was questioned by Surigao City residents in 2010. The high court later reversed that decision.
Dinagat officials filed a motion for reconsideration, which remains unsettled to this day.
But the reversal of the decision cost Dinagat its IRA when the Department of Budget and Management decided to withhold it in November. Danni V. Adorador III, Inquirer Mindanao
