Polls may be over but not rift between QC mayoral candidates

MANILA, Philippines — The word war isn’t over between Quezon City’s next mayor, incumbent Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, and Rep. Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo, her toughest rival in the recently-concluded elections.

Three days after the polls, the Facebook page of a group called “Solid Duterte Supporters of Quezon City” posted a copy of a letter dated May 15, in which the city government’s Task Force Control and Prevention of Illegal Structures and Squatting asked residents on Capoas Street and Apollo Bridge to demolish their houses or leave the areas.

Capoas Street and Apollo Bridge are in the first district, where Crisologo is the incumbent congressman.

The letter said the notice of demolition came from secretary to the mayor Tadeo Palma in line with the Department of Public Works and Highways’ flood mitigating project and risk reduction program.

“They targeted first the district of Congressman Bingbong Crisologo,” said the post on the group’s FB page.

Through an open letter on her FB account over the weekend, Belmonte, without naming Crisologo, asked him to take up the matter with outgoing Mayor Herbert Bautista and his “patron,” city administrator Aldrin Cuna, instead of “being a staunch peddler of disinformation.”

“As district representative, I suggest you remind them that the city council led by me has an ordinance in which we are pushing for no demolition without in-city relocation (Comprehensive [Socialized] Housing Code of Quezon City). Stop fooling the people,” she said.

Son’s gesture

“Your son reached out to me in reconciliation during our proclamation. Do not embarrass your son by making him appear insincere in his laudable gesture,” she added although she did not identify the son either.

In September, the city council passed the Comprehensive Socialized Housing Code of 2018 that seeks to provide affordable and adequate housing programs for the city’s urban poor.

In her post, Belmonte also hinted that Cuna had financed Crisologo’s mayoral campaign. The Inquirer contacted Cuna for comment but he had yet to respond at press time.

During the campaign period, the two often traded barbs with Crisologo accusing Belmonte of “incompetence” on numerous occasions, citing as an example her decision in 2017 not to suspend classes despite heavy rains.

She responded on FB by thanking her bashers whose “brutality made me a more conscientious leader.”