Defeating Cerezo a sweet victory - Rosario

VINDICATED: Binmaley com-backing mayor
Sam Rosario.

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

BINMALEY – The newly elected mayor of this first class town considered his victory for the mayoral contest in May 13 this year as the “sweetest.”
 Mayor Simplicio Rosario said compared to the 2004 elections when he defeated the wife of his opponent former mayor Lorenzo Cerezo, the 2013 poll was his sweetest vindication. Rosario was defeated by Cerezo by 460 votes in 2010 election but in this year’s poll he trounced out the latter with thousands of votes.
 He explained that in the May 13 derby he was against all odds when he fought a sitting mayor supported by the congressman, governor, vice governor, two board members, majority of the village chiefs of this 33 barangays, and the vaunted Iglesia Ni Cristo.
 “And yet nanalo ako dahil sa Dios Panginoon, dahil sa tao, some of my leaders my loyalists, some of the ex-barangay captains and kagawad. Sweetest talaga,” he said.
 Rosario said he does not know if he will file a legal case against his predecessor. “I don’t know kasi wala pa akong nakikita,” he quipped.
 The new mayor said when he took his post last June 30 the garbage that strewn all over the town and its villages was overwhelming. “I hired four dump trucks kasi pinababayaan after election. So ang baho ng Binmaley, nag hire ako ng dalawa noong oath taking ko noong linggo. Maraming nagko-complain na mabaho na basura dito sa bayan hangang sa mga barangay,” he said.
Rosario deplored that three weeks after he took office he found that the coffer of this biggest town in the 2nd congressional district has been emptied. He cited the millions of pesos budget for the mayor’s office had turned red in June 30 this year. The half a million pesos public affairs and the social funds had only hundred of pesos left. “Pati gasoline sa office of the mayor ubos na. Na magic ng nakaraang administration ang budget,” a source who asked anonymity showed to this paper the reports prepared by the municipal treasurer and accountant.
 Rosario said he would be realigning the funds for some projects that were funded by the P55 million loan contracted by the municipal government under former mayor Cerezo.