Representative Sharon Garin of the AAMBIS-OWA party-list admitted that she was “slighted” by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas’ “depyuta speaker” remark.
“I’ve been in this profession for 12 years and this is the first time that it happened to me. Damo man gahikay sa akon, criticized my work but never that kind of language used publicly,” Garin said in an interview on IMT Conversations.
The House deputy speaker received “hurtful” words from Treñas who accused her of opposing the passage of a bill that seeks to establish the Iloilo City Hospital.
“I heard that the bill for the Iloilo City Hospital was not approved today for the third reading because of the opposition of a congresswoman from a party-list coming from Iloilo province,” Treñas said in a Facebook post on Monday, Dec. 6.
Garin denied the mayor’s accusation, noting that she voted for the approval of House Bill No. 10464, which is authored by Iloilo City Representative Julienne”Jamjam” Baronda, on second reading.
“Rest assured, she (Baronda) has my support for the good of Iloilo. We really do need more hospitals for Iloilo City and province,” she stressed.
Meanwhile, Garin explained why the bill was not passed on third and final reading on Monday.
“May schedules man na kami eh. Mondays are intended for privilege speeches. Usually, we don’t take up any third reading or ano, privilege speeches lang,” she said.
“And it happened on a Monday so ano lang medyo they were expecting nga right away but I know Congress, I have been there so long. What you expect to happen or what do you want to happen so far doesn’t happen right away,” Garin added.
According to Garin, she and Baronda had already talked and settled the issue.
“I am very upfront man eh nga disappointed and seemed caught in the middle of it. Actually kon gustohon ko I can lobby against this but siling ko Jam I am your friend I am your colleague I’m her to support you because we are colleagues,” said Garin.
“Na hurt ako sa nagkalatabo but what else can I do? I don’t even know how to respond to that. May be it is just emotion, hopefully,” the Ilongga lawmaker added.
To prevent the issue from further escalating, Garin no longer responded to other statements made by Treñas.
“If I say nga indi amo ni, indi na tuod I will be implying that the other person is lying or I mean I don’t want to escalate the whole issue anymore. Let us just leave that. It (the bill) will be approved soon,” said Garin.
“It is in good hands. She (Baronda) has all the Ilonggo representatives including me. I think she is more than capable to do that. Kayang kaya na ni Jamjam,” she added.IMT
