‘If there are funding details to be explained to Bello and whoever is asking, it should be Villar who should do much of the explaining.’
DAVAO City’s Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang has filed a resolution to declare Prof. Walden Bello, former party-list representative, academician, and now a candidate for vice president, persona non grata.
A persona non grata is an unacceptable or unwelcome person. In diplomacy, the term is a status sometimes applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection by diplomatic immunity from arrest and other normal kinds of prosecution.
But as used in the context of Philippine experience, the declaration of persona non grata is seldom made, and if ever, it is resorted to by the local legislative body — usually the city or municipal council — to censure somebody who had publicly hurled scathing criticism against the place or its people.
Bello terribly displeased the Davao city councilors and Mayor Sara Duterte for pointing out at the Comelec PiliPinas Debates 2022: The Turning Point, that the government spent a surprising P1 million per meter for the Davao City Coastal Road. Bello’s complete quote follows: “I would focus on cleansing, cleaning up Davao. For instance ‘yung 36.8 coastal highway road… P1 million pesos per meter? That’s crazy… that’s really corrupt.”
The road project cited by Bello is an 18.5-kilometer multipurpose road that starts from Toril going to the city proper. Secretary Roger Mercado of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) explained that it is a composite highway with larger components and “very different” from ordinary highways.
The Davao City Coastal Road Project will serve as a bypass road, a coastal shore protection and breakwater that protects the city from sea wave actions, water surges and soil erosion. As a matter of fact, during the last typhoon surge in 2020, many residents in nearby subdivisions were thankful for this project as they were spared from the storm devastation. The project will also benefit some 7,500 motorists per day, as vehicular traffic will ease and travel from Toril areas to downtown Davao will be reduced from 45 minutes to only 15 minutes. The road is one of the department’s flagship projects in Davao to solve the burgeoning traffic along the Cotabato-Davao highway.
Although we believe the declaration of persona non grata for Walden Bello is not needed, because public officials in Davao should not be onion-skinned in matters like construction of government projects. Being a big one, the Davao City coastal road was started by former DPWH Secretary Mark Villar and continued by Secretary Mercado. If there are funding details to be explained to Bello and whoever is asking, it should be Villar who should do much of the explaining.
We would like to think that Bello aired his criticism within the ambit of legitimate inquiry, and not just to hit Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte who is also running for vice president like him in this May 2022 elections.
