“I only inherited it.”

That was what Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella claimed yesterday when asked by the media about the exclusion of Bacolod City from the list of the top 10 most competitive cities in the Philippines, after consistently being on it in the past years.

Reacting to the claims of Puentevella yesterday, former Mayor and now Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia recalled that, recently, when the city won the Seal of Good Housekeeping on the basis of its 2012 performance, Puentevella immediately claimed the credit for it.

This time, the data from the National Competitiveness Council clearly showed that the evaluation was done from Dec. 2013 to April 2014, and he had already taken over as mayor, Puentevella will not accept it, he said.

“If something good happens, he will claim it, but if it is not favorable, he will put the blame on me,” Leonardia said.

The truth is, in the 2010 evaluation, Bacolod was Number One and in 2012, it was Number Two in the aspect of government efficiency. And now with Puentevella as the mayor, Bacolod’s ranking dropped to Number 45 in that area, he said.

Leonardia said that from Number 5, in the general ranking, Bacolod fell to number 20 and that is a shame. “We never had this kind of ranking in any national evaluation,” he said.

In a radio interview, Puentevella hinted that the figures were manipulated. That is an insult to the intelligence and integrity of the people in the National Competitiveness Council, Leonardia said.

“He even has the gall to say that the SMX Convention Center of SM was established because of him since the Sys do not like me,” Leonardia said in reaction to Puentevella’s statement in the radio interview.

It will certainly be ridiculous to say and assume that SM will put up a convention center just for the love of Monico Puentevella, he said.

“He conveniently forgot that SM was started and opened when I was mayor,” Leonardia said. It also expanded its north wing when he was still mayor, he added.

Leonardia said this all shows the kind of person Puentevella is. At his age of 68 years old, he is still in denial, and out of touch with reality, he said.

Earlier, Lorney Lyzander Dilag, Puentevella’s new spokesperson, had said the present administration cannot be held responsible for the non-inclusion of Bacolod City among the top 10 most competitive cities in the Philippines.

He claimed that the basis of the NCC for the evaluation and assessment was on data covering 2013.

But the evaluation was conducted from December 2013 to April 2014, NCC sources said.

Dilag said the Mayor only assumed office in July 2013. “In other words, they cannot be held responsible,” he claimed.

The NCC website showed that Bacolod was no longer among the top 10 most competitive cities in the Philippines in 2013, and had slipped to 20th in the 2014 assessment of the National Competitiveness Council.

From being among the top 5 most competitive cities in the Philippines in 2012, Bacolod sank to the 20th spot, with a total overall score of only 38.58.*CGS

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