The so-called “Ulat ni Monico” delivered by Mayor Monico Puentevella on his 68th birthday Tuesday was a long-winded excuse and cover-up for the failures and shortcomings of his administration, former mayor and now Congressman Evelio Leonardia said yesterday.

Leonardia, apparently reacting to digs made against his administration in the “Ulat,” said Puentevella has nothing to show as his accomplishments, so he entertained the people with a collection of empty sound bytes on the same half-truths and lies he has always been peddling and keeps repeating about my administration.

Maybe he subscribes to the theory of that Nazi official whose motto was that if you repeat a lie often enough, it will soon appear as the truth, Leonardia said in a press release from his office.

If his speech was a reflection of the state of the city, it is sad and alarming, because it was neither here nor there, Leonardia said. The confusion is remarkable because the mayor jerked from one thought to another, one idea to the next. There is an Ilonggo phrase that could best describe it: “Wala diri, wala didto,” Leonardia said, “Neither here nor there.”

Bacolod doesn't deserve this, he added.

It’s been 12 months since he took over City Hall, Leonardia said, and Puentevella has not built a single road nor erected a single street light. It has been 12 months already, and he has not stopped whining and blaming others for his own failures.

And yet, it is easy for him to claim as his own what my administration had done. The P81-million infrastructure projects that he claimed as his accomplishments were, in fact my projects, Leonardia said. These include the school buildings in ETCS, the Medalla Integrated School and the Bacolod City College. The records will prove this, he said.

He blames the city’s loans for his failures and yet, even with the same obligations, we were able to deliver projects and services in our time, Leonardia said. He should stop using my administration as his scapegoat for his inadequacies, he also said, adding that it was time Puentevella assumed responsibility for the true state of the city.

And the truth is, Puentevella is now enjoying the fruits of these loans, Leonardia said. He now holds office in one of the biggest and most beautiful City Halls in the country because we dared risk political capital and built one, Leonardia said. Also, he added, the mayor can now be fully-compliant with the solid waste management law, because my administration had the guts to buy that property for a landfill despite the criticisms, and even the cases his own people filed against us.

Also because we dared to risk political capital and bought land for the city during our time, Puentevella now has relocation sites at his disposal, and he does not have to worry where to settle those who are displaced, Leonardia also pointed out.

And yet, instead of thanking us, here he comes, whining about the loans that have, in fact, made his life as mayor a lot easier than mine had been, Leonardia said.

But maybe that is why he did not call his recital the “state of the city” but the “Ulat of Monico”. It actually sounds like an“ulat” from his imagination only, he added.*

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