City councilor Vicente “Agalon” Polinar believes that Tagbilaran City Mayor John Geesnell Yap II can do something about the expensive gas prices in the city, if only the latter has the heart.
The alderman revealed his opinion in a radio interview over Newsmakers Ug Uban Pa, hosted by Ardy Araneta-Batoy and Gloria Leodivica Araneta on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021.
Program anchor Batoy asked Polinar some steps his committee on energy has undertaken to solve the huge problem of high gas prices in the city.
The city councilor said he can only conduct probes at the city council “in aid of legislation”.
He added that common sense dictates that the one who can solve the high gas price woes in the city is the local chief executive—who is the city mayor.
Polinar said: “Sa tinuod lang Agalon (addressing his statement to Batoy and Araneta) kung ang atong city mayor – halandong city mayor – naa pa gyuy kasing-kasing [ug] sya mag pakabana pa ug unsa man nga pamaagi [nga] ma-us-us ang presyo sa petroleum products, mahimo gyud nya Agalon kay city mayor sya Agalon. Executive man na sya,” the city councilor told Batoy & Araneta during the interview.
After Polinar made the statement, Batoy told the city councilor, “Sa akong pagdungog sa imong gipanulti, Agalon, murag nakaingon ko nga ang basol karon nga gusto nimong ilabay, adto padulong gyud kang Mayor Baba kay miingon man ka nga kung naa pa sya’y kasing-kasing ma-us-usan unta niya ang presyo sa gasolina which is tantamount to saying nga walay kasingkasing si Mayor Baba.”
After this statement of Batoy, Polinar changed his tone by saying that he is not blaming Mayor Yap for the high gas prices in the city. He reiterated that the city mayor can do something with the gas prices if he has the heart to do it.
Batoy pointed out that if she were the wife/daughter of the mayor, Polinar’s statement about Yap’s “lack of heart” to solve the gas prices problem would offend her.
To this statement of Batoy, the alderman replied with a laughter.
The alderman said that his statement about the mayor’s lack of heart is an adjective supplied by Batoy and not by himself.
To this statement Batoy told Polinar that she was not supplying any adjective based on the basic parts of speech. Batoy said that what she repeated was the conditional clause if Polinar picked out from the previous statement of Polinar. Batoy insisted that she never issued any adjective as claimed by Polinar. Batoy, who herself is a Masters Degree holder major in ENGLISH, was surprised with the seeming off tangent response of Agalon to her statement. Batoy reviewed het statements and claimed she never issued any adjective at all.
Polinar continued the “adjective” issue she hurled against Batoy. Likewise, Batoy held on to her knowledge of what an adjective is.
Batoy then told Polinar that she didn’t like what he said about the city mayor .
The alderman apologized to Batoy for what he said.
With this statement of apology, Batoy told Polinar that he should, instead, direct his apologies to the city mayor whom he addressed his accusation of “Ug naa pa unta’y kasingkasing” ang Local Chief Executive.
To recall, the alderman just arrived from Mindanao, after having been away for almost a year.
According to him, he was stranded in Mindanao as he was unable to return to Tagbilaran after Gov. Arthur Yap imposed a travel ban as a measure to prevent the entry of the Coronavirus disease (Covid) back in March 2020.
Polinar is the chairman of the Committee on Energy, which is tasked to probe the high gas prices in Tagbilaran.
This is the reason he was asked by Batoy and Araneta, the question on high gas prices.
Moreover, Polinar admitted in the interview that he is still in the process of inviting resource persons who can shed light on the pressing problem regarding exorbitant gas prices among city-based gas stations.