Balilihan mayor Pureza Veloso-Chatto strongly denies insinuations that the locally stranded individuals (LSIs) under quarantine in a facility in the town are “padlocked” as allegedly bared by town Vice Mayor Adonis Olalo.
Chatto further calls Olalo’s statement as “most irresponsible” during this covid crisis.
Chatto gave the statement in a radio interview over dyTR’s “Newsmakers ug Uban Pa” on Thursday, July 2, 2020, hosted by the sister tandem of Ardy Araneta-Batoy and Gloria Leodivica Ines Araneta.
In the interview Chatto said that the statement of Olalo “gikandado daw” is very unfair to the barangay officials and those people who are always doing their best to help fight the Covid-19 crisis.
Chatto also said that she doesn’t know where the vice mayor got the information regarding the alleged padlocking of LSIs in the quarantine facility.
“Dis-a sya anang komentaryoha na for sure wala sya muabot didto sa (barangay) Sagasa kay sya mismo naka quarantine,” Chatto said.
The mayor said that it is impossible for the vice mayor to have personally seen the quarantine facility in Sagasa because he himself was on quarantine in another area. Chatto was surprised how Olalo could make such an insinuation, in public over FB, when he did not have a clear picture of how the Sagasa quarantine facility looks like.
Chatto continued by saying that the vice mayor was subjected to quarantine as soon as he arrived in Balilihan from Manila where he was stranded together with his family and where he stayed for not less than three (3) months.
Chatto made the statement to counter Olalo’s alleged insinuations
that the LSIs are padlocked in the quarantine facility.
The mayor said that the alleged insinuations by the vice mayor are not validated and should not have been made public.
Olalo was stranded in Manila and Chatto learned about the whereabouts of the vice mayor only last April 20, when the former wrote a letter to the latter. This letter was in response to Mayor Chatto’s letter asking for Olalo’s whereabouts.
The mayor said that if a government official is making a personal trip, no travel authority is needed, but there should be a leave of absence to be filed before the town’s chief executive—who is the mayor.
Chatto said that she did not know if the vice mayor filed a leave of absence, which explains why she had no idea on Olalo’s whereabouts until the letter from Olalo landed on her desk.
Olalo, according to Chatto, left Bohol on March 7, 2020. Bohol imposed a lockdown and a travel ban on March 16, 2020.
“He (Olalo) had ample time na mupauli but he did not do that,” Chatto narrated in the radio interview.
In her concluding statements during the interview, Chatto appealed for unity, kindness, and truthfulness in dealing with this Covid crisis. She says what the LGU executives are doing now is not that easy because our enemy is unseen. The same is true to all the frontliners as they do their tasks, Chatto continued. Despite all these difficulties, Chatto was very definite in saying that it is her responsibility to serve her people in Balilihan and she is accepting this task without any reservation and without any fear as she always seeks for the help of the Almighty Father.