Days before he is sworn in as our City's new mayor, I wrote a letter to the mayor-elect to teach him a few lessons on how to be one.
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June 24, 2025
Vice Mayor Abelardo Bantug III City Government of Victorias
Dear Vice Mayor Bantug:
This is with regard to your May 7, 2025 letter to me which served as your "consolidated response" to my complaint letters to Councilors Dino Acuna and Eric Alcobilla dated April 16, 2025 and April 25, 2025, respectively, as chairpersons of the Committee on Natural Resources, Environmental Protection and Ecology, and the Committee on Public Safety and Order, respectively. My letters to them were about my concerns and complaints regarding City Ordinance No. 2023-59, the Car-free day Ordinance that closes certain city streets every first Monday of the month.
Your letter, which was obviously written by a lawyer for you, was disappointing and insulting. Disappointing because, even in two wordy pages, you never addressed any of my concerns; you simply deflected them. Insulting because, instead of listening, you simply threw legalese towards my direction that was meant to humiliate any reader. If I wanted a lecture about the Local Government Code, I would just have gone online.
That is not the way public servants respond to the issues, concerns, and complaints that are brought to their attention. You must have forgotten that it is the people of Victorias City that have been paying for your salaries, benefits, and bonuses all these years, and of course, for your delicious meals, travels, hotels, and everything else that you think you deserve we should pay for.
On Monday, June 30, 2025, six days from now, you will be sworn in as the new mayor of our City, but it seems to me you badly need the following lessons on how to be one:
1. Always listen to the voices of the Victoriahanon
When a citizen goes to the City Hall or to any barangay hall to complain, that means he or she is serious about that complaint. The tone from the top should be that of a government that listens to its people, and not one that dismisses them. You and your local government do not have the monopoly of ideas. Neither do you have a complete understanding of everyone's perspectives and experiences. These I learned from my direct engagement with your government. Once your government accepts those facts, it will be easier for you to work for us and with us.
If you do this, we may no longer need to involve the Anti-Red Tape Authority, the Civil Service Commission, of the Ombudsman just to force you to listen.
2. Ordinances and executive decisions should always be for the common good
Based on the information I have gathered, this is what happened and what is happening in regard to the 'Car-free day Ordinance': (1) The Sangguniang Panlungsod approved the ordinance without any public hearing, consultation or discussion with the residents, private vehicle owners, tricycle drivers, business owners, and the administration, faculty, and the students of Victorias Elementary School and their parents; (2) the local government did not conduct any information campaign about it as required by the Ordinance; (3) the local government did not review its effects as required by the Ordinance; (4) everyone suffers during 'Car-free days; (5) city officials still bring their vehicles to work during 'Car-free' days. I discovered that the local government violated its own ordinance by not complying with Sections 8 and 9 of the said Ordinance.
As the presiding offer, you should have made sure that ordinances, especially those that impact the local economy, public safety, and the welfare of the people, are thoroughly studied, have public hearings conducted about it, and discussed with all the stakeholders before its approval. The councilors should have gone out of their offices, gone house-to-house, and spoken to all stakeholders and people who would be impacted. None of those was done for the 'Car-free day' Ordinance.
You should always understand that most people, like tricycle drivers, do not have the time to attend public hearings at the City Hall because they have to make a living during the day. Worse, I learned that the Sangguniang Panlungsod does not exactly like the idea of a lot of people attending public hearings because, when I asked the staff of the Victorias City Information Office (VCIO) in the morning of January 24, 2025, a Friday, as to why the notice of the January 27, 2025 public hearing regarding the P1.086 billion loan disappeared from the VCIO Facebook page, I was told that the Secretary of the Sangguniang Panlungsod told her to delete the said notice.
Fortunately, there were concerned citizens out there who saved the post and sent me a copy. Otherwise, I would not have known about the hearing and I would not have been able to ask the questions which none of the city officials, you included, and members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod present was able to answer. The citizens who attended that hearing went home very disappointed. You should know; you were there.
Every year, the Department of the Interior and Local Government holds the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) recognition program, and if you really understood the issues I raised in my letters to the two aforementioned councilors, at least four of the criteria were violated by the 'Car-free day' Ordinance, namely: (1) Social Protection and Sensitivity; (2) Business Friendliness and Competitiveness; (3) Safety, Peace, and Order; and (4) Environmental Management.
When you get to be mayor, can you please ask yourself whether ordinances or executive decisions are all for the common good, or it will violate any of the SGLG criteria?
3. Listen to your conscience, and not to those who whisper in your ears
Be your own person. This is the time when you have to grow up for our sake. You probably will take orders from so-called advisers who have their own agenda and who already have concrete plans for bleeding the City dry. For the sake of the Victoriahanon, make sure you surround yourself with the people who are honest, sincere, and who will work for the real 'asenso'. Do not let yourself be some people's puppet.
You now have the opportunity to create your own legacy, a legacy that you can be proud of someday; a legacy that is corruption-free and one that really works for the people.
4. Be a leader, not a dictator
I understand that your May 7, 2025 letter tells me to just shut up and not complain. Victorias needs a leader, not a dictator. A leader listens; a dictator does not.
So, which one will you be?
5. Genuine public service above online praises and awards
As I told the City Administrator in my March 5, 2025 letter to him, the local government should perform and provide genuine public service for us, the people of Victorias, and not just for its press released and for awards given by outsiders as they are not the ones who wade through the floods during heavy rains, fall into open excavation holes that cannot be seen after dark, endure secondhand smoke in public areas, and endure inconvenience during the 'Car-free' day.
If the local government only works for awards and for 'judges' who come to visit only for a day, then, those awards do not really translate to real public service. The 'real judges' are us, the people of Victorias.
6. Make real 'asenso' your legacy
When you ran for vice mayor in 2022, you and your allies used 'asenso' as your byline. Victorias was a 4th class city then. When you become mayor next week, it will still be a 4th class city but with a debt of more than a billion pesos.
We hope that your administration will focus on the goal of lifting everyone up, especially the marginalized Victoriahanon, even in the midst of the burden on our financial resources caused by the P1.5 billion borrowing which I found out was hastily approved.
7. Comply with Section 8(b)(1)(m) of Republic Act No. 8488
Republic Act No. 8488 is the law that created our City, and a specific Section of that law requires the mayor to "visit component barangays of the City at least once every three (3) months to deepen his understanding of problems and conditions, listen and give appropriate counsel to local officials and inhabitants of general laws and ordinances which especially concern them, and otherwise conduct visits and inspections to ensure that the governance of the City will improve the quality of life of the inhabitants."
We urge you to visit us in the barangays and not waste taxpayers' money on frivolous trips to Italy and other countries to attend food festivals that bring no obvious economic benefits to our local farmers and local restaurants.
During the April 10, 2025 hearing held at the Victorias City Public Library for my complaint that I filed at the Anti-Red Tape Authority against the Sangguniang Panlungsod, I told the City's department heads who were convened as the local Committee on Anti-Red Tape that they "cannot see the problems of Victorias from inside their air-conditioned offices". I strongly urge you to visit all barangays, neighborhoods, markets, farmers, fisherfolks, and tricycle drivers' associations because you, too, cannot solve the problems of Victorias while just sitting comfortable in your air-conditioned office.
had you been roaming around, you would have noticed that the satellite fruit and vegetable market at Bangga Daan has been unused since the late 2022. Until now, it is unusable even though the targeted completion date was March 4, 2025.
One important reason for Section 8(b)(1)(m) is for you to not just deliver a monologue but to engage us in a dialogue. In the next three years, you will deliver speeches almost every Monday at the public plaza. A speech is just a monologue; a one-way communication. But when you visit us in the barangays, that monologue becomes a dialogue, which then becomes a conversation.
I encourage you to visit the barangays, not just to cut ribbons or serve arroz caldo. You have the chance to really see, listen, and find out what needs to be done. You will then learn how to serve.
By the way, during the public hearing at the City Hall on January 27, 2025, I raised the issue of the waiting sheds for the commuters in the City. I also wrote the city administrator about it. It has been five months; nobody listened. Very sad.
8. Make transparency your legacy
I went to the City Accountant's office on January 30, 2025, to ask for the 2024 financial statements of the City. At first, the City Accountant, whose office is at the ground floor of the City Hall, wanted me to write another letter to the mayor for the same purpose. I told her that she was giving me, an ordinary citizen, a hard time as I had to write another and go up the stairs to the mayor's office for the same purpose: a request for financial statements that should have been available to everyone.
The kind of reluctance on the part of the local government to be transparent about the people's money and where it is spent should have no place in your government. If you really want good governance as part of your legacy, post the monthly, quarterly and annual financial statements of the City's income and expenses online so everyone can read it and be aware where our money is spent.
The https://victoriascity.gov.ph/ website is also not updated. The ordinances and resolutions for 2023 are only up to the third quarter, while the 2024 ordinances and resolutions posted are only up to the second quarter.
While the Facebook page of the VCIO is full of praises and photographs of the public officials, and occasional, irrelevant birthday greetings of people not from Victorias, we will appreciate if the said Facebook page and the City's official website become the media of transparency by posting periodically the City's financial statements that show how much we earn and how much we spend each month, quarter, and year, as well as notices of public hearings and proposed ordinances.
The VCIO can start by creating an album where the City's annual financial statements audited by the Commission on Audit, as well as its findings and recommendations, will be posted.
I hope that during your term, we will finally feel that the local government really values transparency.
9. Remind yourself every day that the government is not about your but about us, the people of Victorias.
We know that some, if not all, of the elected officials feel that the world revolves around them. It seems that the people have mistakenly elected egos (and maybe some crooks!) into office, and not public servants. We hope that once you become our mayor, you will always remind all officials that they are public servants, and therefore should always put themselves in our shoes in all your legislation and government decisions.
The people should not be just a footnote in your speeches nor an afterthought in your legislation adn decision-making.
We are and should be the center of government.
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On July 7, 2025, the first Monday of July, the 'Car-free day' Ordinance will be imposed again. On that day, I suggest you do the following: (1) stand at the corner of Montinola and Yap Quiña Streets at 7AM to observe the chaos the VES students and their parents will endure; (2) take a tricycle from the Victorias National High School to the Victorias Commercial Center (VCC) that will be forced to detour around Brgy. 4 doubling the fuel usage and reducing the earnings of the tricycle drivers; (3) observe the vehicle congestion along Miraflores, Jover and Arnaez Sts. in Barangay 3 that will again endanger public safety; (4) stand at the corners of Jover and Ardosa Sts., and Jover and Jalandoni Sts. at 4PM to observe traffic congestion; (5) stand at the corner of Osmeña Avenue and Jover St. to observe how the delivery men struggle to bring goods on their trolleys across the highway under the scorching sun or rain to get to the VCC because delivery vans will not be allowed; and (6) talk to the rice dealers and business owners at VCC and ask about the impact on their sales when consumers like the senior citizens will refrain from buying goods that day as it will be heavy for them to carry because they will have no access to the tricycles at the market's north entrance.
Tani, maluoy ka man sa mga tricycle drivers. Nagasaka pa guid ang presyo sang gasolina. If you empathize and feel pity, then you may just be the mayor we need.
The Victorias we create today is as important to the future Victoriahanon as it is to us now. We pray that your term will be successful because your success is our success.
Madamo nga salamat.
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