‘Height of insensitivity,’ mayor says of MMDA idea
Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay has rejected an invitation from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to join a study tour for Metro mayors in Canada which included a side trip to Las Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao fight Erik Morales on Jan. 21 saying the planned trip was “the height of insensitivity.”
In a statement yesterday, Binay stressed that “considering the government’s huge budget deficits and scarce resources, it is the height of insensitivity to incur such an unnecessary expense.”
But a familiar figure at the fight will be First Gentleman Mike Arroyo who aides said will likely be at ringside when the Filpino icon fights Morales for the second time.
A source who requested anonymity said there is a strong possibility that Arroyo would be at ringside despite what occured when he last watched Pacquiao’s fight in Vegas where he was criticized for staying at a ,000-a-night penthouse.
He has denied the report and said no hotel in Vegas has a room that cost that much.
During a meeting last December, MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando invited Metro mayors and their representatives for a study tour of Canada from Jan. 15-19 as guests to the Greater Vancouver Council.
The cost of the travel reportedly will be shouldered by the MMDA.
Binay has already written to Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Angelo Reyes to stop the MMDA from proceeding with the side trip.
“While we do not, in the absolute, disagree with the objectives of such a study tour, we are compelled to register our objection to such travel during these times of hardship that our nation faces,” the letter said.
In the same letter, Binay also hit “the lack of transparency and honesty of MMDA Chairman Fernando by leaving out the planned side trip to Las Vegas in his letter to you seeking travel authority for the mayors.”
“Chairman Fernando had invited the mayors to go to Las Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao in his upcoming boxing match in that city,” Binay informed Reyes.
“Regardless of who foots the bill for that trip – but especially if government funds will be used for that purpose, directly or indirectly – it is again an ostentatious waste of much-needed resources that is truly offensive and insulting to our countrymen,” he pointed out.
So far, Bayani said 14 Metro mayors have expressed their desire to join the trip.
Bayani said that no MMDA funds will be used and that sponsors will help fund the trip.
He also explained Las Vegas is a stop-over of Philippine Airlines (PAL) flights returning to the Philippines from Canada.
