Malrondu means Malabuyoc, Ronda, and Dumanjug. They belong to the blessed second congressional district of Cebu, which has been favored by the gods of rains and floods with a bountiful load of flood-control projects and budgetary allocations. This is also the district where San Pedro Calungsod was born.
The members of Congress, the Calderons, husband and wife, who led this district for the longest time, must have been very blessed too, for bringing home to this district billions of bacon for the favored people. For this is the district of San Pedro Calungsod, the only saint from the whole province of Cebu, who was from the town of Ginatilan. But the blessings of billions worth of flood control projects were not poured by heaven into the town of the saint. They were determined by the gods perhaps by holy geographic coordinates into unknown sites in Malrondu.
These favored towns could appropriately exclaim then: When the blessing rains, it really floods. Malabuyoc, got no less than ?3.3 billion with supposed 38 projects. Ronda, my dear town of gentle people, the beautiful Rondahanons, got a whopping gift from Mount Olympus, an unprecedented amount perhaps ten times its annual budget, or even much more. Ronda got ?2.6 billion for alleged 34 projects. Thirty-four is a bounty because Ronda has only 14 barangays and a population of about 21,000. I do not know where in Ronda these flood control projects are being worked at. But what a blessing from Our Lady of Sorrows.
Dumanjug, the historic land of my late father’s birth, the town that prides itself as the home of the governors, also got an impressive ?2.18 billion. This is the only time when Dumanjug, with 37 barangays, was beaten by Ronda with only 14. But ?2.18 billion is not bad for the home of QM Builders, which, by accident of destiny, is also the very lucky contractor that won in an honest-to-goodness bidding and procurement process. It was also circumstantial that Dumanjug is likewise the home of the Quirante Construction Corp., another lucky start-up. Now Dumanjug is not only home to governors but also to heaven-sent contractors.
It was just a mere coincidence also that the former congressman, who was vice chairman of Zaldy Co’s appropriation committee, was one of the wedding sponsors of QM Builders owner’s son. The question is: who benefitted from such a bountiful load of blessings? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. And it blows my mind. That is what our good friend, the new DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon, should look into. Perhaps he should know that the regional director used to be assigned in this district. That director was also allegedly another wedding sponsor in the same wedding. Too many strange coincidences, indeed. The stars are all aligning in the seventh heaven.
It is now of common knowledge that the whole province of Cebu, next only to the number one flood capital of the Philippines, Bulacan, has been favored by the gods in Congress, specifically Zaldy Co’s appropriation committee whose vice chair happened to be the honorable former congressman representing the 7th District of Cebu. Our province, which has admittedly some true and authentic flood problems in Cebu City, Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, and Talisay, and some other cities and towns (but not in Malrondu), got ?25.521 billion for flood control. But why was one-half of the entire budget for flood control diverted to Malrondu? ?12.06 billion out of ?25.521 billion.
And is it true that most of the Malrondu and other Cebu flood control projects fell into the lap of QM Builders, a single proprietorship based in Dumanjug? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. I saw a movie once entitled: “The Gods Must Be Crazy” But since I am from Malrondu, I can say that, with such a large bounty, the gods have made some people and their families very, very happy.
Who are these lucky guys? That is for the Independent Commission for Infrastructure to determine and say.