Jalosjos cries foul as Uy moves to give away Zamboanga del Norte equipment

ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE, Philippines – Dapitan Mayor and Zamboanga del Norte Governor-elect Rosalina Jalosjos on Tuesday, May 24, protested a move by Governor Roberto Uy to donate millions of pesos worth of equipment to other local governments in the province.

Jalosjos wrote to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to ask for his intervention, and to stop the donations.

“It is an act of sabotaging my still-to-be established administration. His (Uy’s) intention is obviously to cripple me,” Jalosjos told Rappler.

Jalosjos was proclaimed as the next governor of Zamboanga del Norte after beating former Dipolog City mayor Evelyn Tang Uy, the outgoing governor’s wife, in the gubernatorial race.

On May 11, Governor Uy asked the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to authorize the capitol to donate the medical equipment to Dipolog City where his son Darel Dexter is the mayor.

If it pushes through, the medical equipment would be given to the Dipolog City government-run Corazon Aquino Memorial Hospital (CAMH).

The equipment includes:

• phaco-emulsification machine
• LCD chard projector
• photocoagulator laser machine
• photodisruptor laser with SLT machine
•  indirect ophthalmoscope
• ultrasound biometry
• auto-refractometer/auto-Keratometer machine
• slit lamp
• ophthalmic surgical table
• ophthalmic surgical operating microscope
• plasma sterilizer
• dialysis reprocessor
• 15 dialysis machines

“Why strip ZNMC of the much-needed equipment when it is the province’s main COVID-19 referral hospital? What will happen to us if, God forbid, there will be another COVID-19 surge?” she asked. 

Rappler tried to get comments from the provincial government but its spokesperson, lawyer Goldie Gonzales, has yet to respond.

The provincial board authorized Uy on Monday, May 23, to donate to Dipolog City five 2021 model Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks and a 9,912-square meter property in Dipolog City on which the old provincial hospital stands.

The hospital houses the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, and the provincial office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The provincial board also gave Uy the authority to donate 25,728 square meters to the town government of Sirawai under Mayor Aljazar Janihim, a staunch political ally of the Uys.

The donated land is where the capitol facilities are located.

The town governments of Godod, Labason, Sibutad, Gutalac, Liloy, La Libertad, and Katipunan have also sent the capitol letters to ask for some of its heavy equipment.

Jalosjos said no law prohibits donations to other local governments but “it’s a subtle way of incapacitating me.” – Rappler.com