Barangay chair declared used vehicles brand new

The reelected chairman of a village in Las Piñas City is facing another complaint for allegedly purchasing two secondhand rescue vehicles but declared them as brand new.

The complainant, Enrico Medina, an incumbent council member of Barangay Daniel Fajardo, claimed that their village head, Robert Cristobal, purchased a small fire truck and an ambulance last year. Although both were used, the vehicles were passed on as brand new, he said.

"Before they purchased the vehicles, we had a meeting but there was no minutes of the meeting. We seldom have meetings to discuss projects or expenses. The fire truck was delivered a week after we supposedly had a meeting,” he added.

Medina claimed he had no say in the purchase of the vehicles.

“When Chairman Cristobal called for meetings for the purchase of two vehicles, he told stories and did not ask our advice. He would just say that he bought secondhand vehicles and that was that,” the council member said.

Medina is one of the five members of the barangay appropriations committee, the panel responsible for allocating funds.

He maintained that he did not get the chance to read budget reports because he felt “pressured” by Edna Cristobal, the barangay administrator.

"We were just asked to sign contracts and budget reports. Every time I was about to read the documents, they would pressure me to speed it up because allegedly they are waiting for my signature. They would say, ‘Don’t read the documents anymore, CoA and the mayor are waiting,’ so I ended up not reading the entire thing,” he said.

Medina maintained that “there was corruption in the release of funds for the ambulance and fire truck.”

Medina is the second council member to accuse Cristobal of irregularities. Demetrio Fajardo, another council member, earlier filed a complaint against the village chief before the Department of the Interior and Local Government because of his failure to hold sessions for eight months.

Fajardo also claimed that Cristobal does not reside in their barangay.

Cristobal however said he was never involved in any illegal practice during his term as barangay chairman.

"I only want to help others and yet they have these issues against me. They are trying to destroy what I have accomplished in so many years. I feel bad but I am not a violent person, so I will just leave this issue to God,” he said. (Source: The Manila Times under the original title: Village head declared used vehicles brand new)

Death wish of armless Punong Barangay

Punong Barangay Patrimonio

The newly elected Punong Barangay of Bajumpandan, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, once had a death wish.

After losing his arms and four toes in a construction accident, Crispin Patrimonio, then 26-years-old, asked that he be allowed to die and that any assistance be given to support his young family.

Crispin barely finished his Industrial Arts degree from the Central Visayas Polytechnic College when he married his high school classmate, Celestina, in 1990. They were both 20.

But instead of pursuing a white-collar job, Crispin started to enjoy making money as a casual employee in a soft drink company. Six years later, Crispin left the soft drink job to learn welding as an apprentice in his cousin’s shop.

Then the accident happened.

“The steel bar I was holding was sucked by a transmission wire and I got electrocuted,” Crispin said.

“I was burned all over. When I came to, I realized that the doctors cut both my arms and four of my toes,” he added.

But his family refused to grant him his death wish.

Celestina and their two sons, Alvin Chris and Lauren Dale, nursed him back to health and helped him adjust to his new normal. Then their daughter, Natalie, was born a year later.

After six years of unemployment and self-pity, Crispin started to recover.

“If others are able to accept me for who I am, who am I not to accept my condition?” he said.

Crispin pursued his dream of having a home and applied for one at Habitat for Humanity.

Since Habitat required sweat, or labor, equity from beneficiaries, Crispin proved that having no arms was no hindrance to shoveling sand into sacks and performing other manual tasks.

Once he left his Tabuctubig neighborhood to live in a new home at the Habitat 3 Village in Bajumpandan, Crispin started selling banana cue around the village.

“The banana cue, which my wife cooked, would be dangling from my right limb while my earnings would be hanging in a bag on my other limb,” he said.

His perseverance and industriousness got him noticed in the village to the point that he was invited to run for village councilor to fill the last vacant slot in a slate. He came out No. 2 out of seven councilors.

From that point on, Crispin was unstoppable and was in the forefront of every village event.

“Whenever someone from my village is hospitalized, I facilitate the payment of hospital bills,” he said.

“When someone dies, I help process the death certificate and make the funeral arrangements,” he added.

That probably explains why in the next two village elections, Crispin held on to the top spot.

With his legislative career at the end of the three-term limit, Crispin ran and won as village captain of Bajumpandan. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)