Quezon City Mayor-elect Joy Belmonte wants constituents complaining of not getting free school supplies to move to more prosperous Makati.
“To those complaining of not having shoes, boots, rubber shoes, PE uniforms, raincoats and allowance, just live in Makati,” an irritated Belmonte said in a Facebook post.
Belmonte, the outgoing Quezon City vice mayor who will be taking over from Herbert Bautista, said she had yet to take control of the budget.
“The city budget that you say is very large is controlled by Mayor Herbert Bautista. Your request for school supplies for every child in QC should be sent to him,” she added. “Next year, I will find ways to provide school supplies to all schoolchildren as I will be the one crafting programmes for the city,” Belmonte added. The incoming mayor came under fire for posting pictures of her distributing school supplies in several barangays (villages) and her reply further inflamed commenters. “Is this how a leader responds,” Topacio Patty Garcia wrote.
Xerox Antonino, meanwhile, said: “Don’t complain… given the numbers of those who received P1,000 and P200… use this to buy school supplies.”
Belmonte noted that Makati City had fewer residents, senior citizens and informal settlers compared to Quezon City’s population of 3.2mn and 250,000 informal settlers.