Gov. Edgar Chatto has clearly understood some capricious people who peddle lies against others who cannot grant their wicked demands.

These are the barking kind who rather surprise if they stop attacking, according to the witty leader who is focused on his mandate while known for managing conflict without losing his cool.

Chatto has endeared himself to countless for his personal kindness and leadership that listens, but he said he can always sense between needs that deserve help and vices disguised as a pure intention to help the government.

He said the people have long known him and if there are wants refused, these are either surely overboard, against established rules and ethics or compromising public good.

“We can meet in any forum in these cases when our principles collide,” the governor said in telling words during his regular Friday media interaction Kita ug Ang Gobernador.

Chatto let the people judge whom to believe, but also not without cautioning his administration’s destroyers, who even blasphemed him to be into illegal drugs, to smell their very mouths.

Apart from him, Chatto said a key capitol official, who is not elected, could prove one demand (also not granted) from whom because they had themselves talked.

“Since when has Edgar Chatto been a druglord?” the governor asked, apparently referring to a past election black propaganda re-amplified by Bohol government’s consistent noisiest critic, lawyer Victor dela Serna.

A bar topnotcher, Dela Serna once briefly served as “big-time” OIC governor who  had gone undesirable when he was kicked out by the Cory Aquino administration that had otherwise appointed him.

“He must have believed his own lie, himself being aware that he has been lying and I’m sure he has been lying,” Chatto said.

Premium arrogance and dictatorial tendencies defined capitol power in the short-lived governorship of Dela Serna, who had no direct mandate from the people by his being merely appointed and never elected to the post, according to those who had served under him.

Capitol observed Dela Serna having “gone amok on air” last week after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) nominated four names to the joint venture boards of the Bohol Light Company, Inc. (BLCI) and Bohol Water Utilities, Inc. (BWUI).

His present BLCI directorship is surefire bound for termination by his exclusion from the list of nominees or his being not re-nominated to continue representing the province to the joint venture.

In separate resolutions two Fridays ago, the SP unanimously nominated former Gov. David Tirol and former Provincial Legal Officer Inocentes Lopez to sit for the provincial government in the BLCI board and lawyer Antonio Amora, Jr. and Engr. Emigdio Acierto in the BWUI board.

HARMONY IN RESPECT

Members of the SP, also called the provincial board, agreed that there was harmony in respect and consultative process when they adopted the nomination resolutions after the governor, in a courtesy letter, asked them to name the nominees.

Board Member Elpidio Jala introduced the twin measures, which were approved without any objection, as chairman of the utilities committee of the capitol legislature, the province’s highest policy-making body.

The government named its new batch of representatives to the BLCI and BWUI boards for the coming annual joint venture stockholders’ meeting and election.

Had the governor abused his prerogative by neglecting the presence of the provincial board and nominating by his sole authority, Dela Serna would have a different story and tagged Chatto a dictator, according to some SP members.

A board member of senior experience declined to say on air, but he said in a media text message, “Masabotahe ang mga maayong plano sa probinsiya kon kana si Victor maoy sigeha’g tubay.  Looy ang mga tawo nga wa kahibawo nga labaw pa na siyang wise.”

SOURGRAPING

Capitol observed the former OIC governor to be perfectly sourgraping when he flatly denied he was angered by his being not renewed for BLCI directorship because, for him, who would be happy getting a “janitor’s pay” for such a high-seated position anyway.

Provincial Administrator Alfonso Damalerio II exposed Dela Serna’s “hypocrisy,” saying that the latter has pursed in a total of P1.3 million since put by the past administration to the joint venture board.

Board records suggest that Dela Serna has been more “obsessed” in director’s fee increase, Damalerio added.

Dela Serna has been harsh to the province, but Chatto allowed him, instead of taking revenge, to stay in the joint venture board when he assumed governor in 2010.

No right-minded government would have allowed its representative to stay and let him keep habitually castigating and humiliating the very authority that has otherwise given him the trust, another board member commented.

The source said that besides, Dela Serna cannot claim monopoly of capacity to faithfully represent the province to the joint venture board.

This could help explain why the SP, also on Jala’s motion, passed a third resolution requiring the government directors in the BLCI and BWUI to render regular quarterly report to the provincial board, which has none in the past.

BEST MANAGERS

Best managers should know which most appropriate authorities are best delegated to whom, Chatto asserted.

He cited the cases of Damalerio and Social, Environment and Economic Management (SEEM) cluster head Liza Quirog who have separate and distinct function descriptions.

They do their official tasks, including signing of documents, on authority approved by the governor and, thus, accountability is not cut and disregarded contrary to the misperception that the chief executive is making himself safe from any consequences.

The established proper process is observed down the municipal LGUs, Chatto said, adding “mura man pud ni si Nong Victor og wa niagi sa pagkagobernador.”

His (Dela Serna) style which he thinks is right must have caused his temporal governorship even shorter, Chatto said.

PORTRAYING BOHOL IN BLOOD

A number of notorious lawless elements, including illegal drug dealers long before Chatto assumed governor, have fallen one after the other, but Dela Serna interpreted this in his patent style to picture Bohol in dripping blood.

Police Provincial Director Dennis Agustin has repeatedly explained that the crime volume has risen precisely because of the successive arrests now of law offenders in the heightened drive against illegal drugs and other crimes.

Dela Serna further imprisoned the truth when he lied that the law enforcers have not received any support from the province, Damalerio said.

Bohol police can attest to how the province aided law enforcement by logistics, operational and other forms of support, including funds for capability-building programs and strategies

Having bragged about his being a brilliant lawyer and to be honest to his supposed hatred for crimes Dela Serna should have offered free legal services to the police, especially in the strong handling of drug cases for higher rate of conviction, some sectors suggested.

There may be some who blame others as a scapegoat for their own responsibility lapses, but Chatto believed no Bohol governor, including Dela Serna if he were still the governor today, could ever afford to protect illegal drug operation.

He further believed that no parents would want their children to get jailed, insane or dead because of drugs. (Ven rebo Arigo)