Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo could not help but air her displeasure in front of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan after a local flood control official stood her up for an important meeting.
Quimbo was referring to flood control management cluster project director Mon Ariola of Marikina's Unified Project Management Office (UPMO).
“Unfortunately I never met him despite my repeated invitations kahit na via Zoom and in fact po last week kahit po busying-busy po tayo sa budget briefing I invited him and he actually confirmed. I waited for two hours last week but he did not show up,” Quimbo said Friday afternoon, Sept. 16 during the House Committee on Appropriations' consideration of the DPWH's proposed budget for 2023.
Bonoan was present during the committee briefing. Quimbo is a senior vice chairperson of the panel.
"Kung kaya niya pong gawin yan sa isang representante, ano pa kaya kay Juan dela Cruz (So if he can do that to a representative, what more to a common Filipino). So para sa akin lang po (So for me), I know it sounds like a specific concern but I believe it is also a general concern which is yung standards po ng professionalism natin dito sa DPWH (the standards of our professionalism here in the DPWH)," the obviously ticked off lady solon said.
Quimbo said the meeting with Ariola was supposed to be for coordination on the still unimplemented flood control plan--a program of import to Marikina residents given how their lives have been devastated in the past by flooding triggered by typhoons like "Ondoy" in 2009.
"Unfortunately po up to today that flood control plan has not yet been fully implemented and dahil po doon (because of that) in the previous Congress I filed the bill to institutiuonalize this national flood control plan. And dahil po doon naging importante po sa akin na mag-coordinate doon po sa aming UPMO (And because of that it was important for me to coordinated with our UPMO)," she said.
Referring to Ariola, Quimbo said, "So yun lang po ang sa akin (So that's it for me), if the director wishes to continue behaving in this manner I genuinely believe that he has no business in government."
When Bonoan was about to respond to Quimbo's remarks, the latter calmly gestured and said, "I don’t a need a reply from Mr. Secretary, OK na po yun (it's already OK).
The congresswoman would terminate or conclude the budget deliberation of the DPWH just minutes later.