15 PH mayors won’t tag trip to Hawaii as junket

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Fifteen city mayors have gone to Hawaii to seal sisterhood pacts in a trip that the mayors said was not a junket, the head of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) said yesterday.

Oscar Rodriguez, mayor of the City of San Fernando and president of LCP, said the sisterhood pacts were sealed between the delegation’s cities and Hawaii.

Rodriguez, who was part of the delegation, said talks began a year ago when Hawaii Representatives John Mizuno and Rida Cabanilla visited the Philippines to explore a possible sisterhood pact through Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, LCP secretary general, who is also in Hawaii.

Rodriguez said Mizuno and Rep. Tom Brower followed up the sisterhood agreements in September last year.

“This was finalized thereafter and we sounded off those who would want later on to forge sisterhood relationship with Hawaii cities,” Rodriguez said in a text message from Honolulu.

He said he and the other mayors sought travel authority from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

He said he would sign a memorandum of understanding on behalf of the LCP and read the message of President Aquino before the Hawaii state legislature.

He said he is returning to the country on March 4 and will not join the LCP delegation in Washington D.C., where another sisterhood pact will be discussed. Braganza will lead the LCP delegation in that trip.

Rowena Freeman, Rodriguez’s chief of staff, said LCP is paying for the cost of the trip. She, however, did not say how much the trip cost.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the LCP trip did not receive funds from the Department of Budget and Management. “I’m not aware of the nature or purpose of the trip,” he said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon