Mayor goes loco on unity meaning

Cabato laments Celso’s

“twisted sense of unity”

City Councilor Jaime U Cabato has denounced what he described as a “cross eyed view and a twisted sense of the word unity” by City Mayor Celso Lobregat when the mayor referred to his party mates in the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) who comprise the majority in the city council as the only ones that count in his concept of unity in Zamboanga. .

In his address and talk about unity during the maiden session of the city council last Thursday, Lobregat thanked his two LDP elected representatives, Congresswoman Maria Isabelle Climaco and Congressman Erico Basilio Fabian and his 12 LDP elected councilors.

He thanked them for their support, but said nothing about the minority in the council, whose presence in the Sangguniang Panglungsod, proves the essence of democracy.

Instead the mayor asserted that his LDP will “stay forever united,” and that no one “can drive a wedge” between them in the party.

The mayor said that he will allow anyone to sow fear under the unity of his present administration.

In his message during the maiden session at the Sangguniang Panglungsod last Thursday, July 05,2007 Lobregat said that he knows his place and he practice proper forum in protocol.

“I will not allow anyone to sow fear,” Lobregat said .

Lobregat further said that the present administration will not be counted down by tyranny by the minority member of the local legislation.

Cabato said that the Mayor twisted the meaning and his interpretation of the word ‘unity” as something that can only exist among his LDP party members.

In effect, this concept of Lobregat, excluded the thousands of local residents who also voted candidates of Nuevo Zamboanga during the May 14 election.

“Elections are over and he as the city mayor should be the first to initiate unity among the people, the entire populace of Zamboanga, because the LDP are not the only people in Zamboanga,’ Cabato said.

Yet despite his calls for unity, the mayor exclude all the others and mean only the unity within his party-the LDP, he said.

Cabato also noted that if as claimed, Lobregat as congressman, did not complained about not being given any committee in Congress, Cabato said he is made of different stuff and will continue to talk about inequities and imbalances in government, particularly in the local government in Zamboanga. (LMMES)