The Makati City government is known for giving birthday cakes to senior citizens — but that practice has temporarily been stopped.
It may be recalled that ousted Makati mayor Junjun Binay was accused of being involved in the overpricing of the said birthday cakes. He was replaced as mayor by Romulo Peña Jr., who was later defeated in the polls by Abigail “Abi” Binay.
Now, it’s Mayor Abi who has to deal with birthday cake woes.
“The city government has not yet tapped a new supplier through public bidding. Thus, Abi announced that they have resorted to giving a set of six cupcakes to seniors celebrating their birthdays,” reports Robertzon Ramirez in The Philippine Star.
In an invitation to bid published in The Philippine Star, Makati is bidding out a contract to supply birthday cakes for senior citizens for PHP11.48 million.
Abi has apologized for the absence of birthday cakes in a letter addressed to her constituents. The letter comes with the box of cupcakes bought from Dimpy’s Kitchen. Abi says she buys the cupcakes with her own money, not city government funds.
Her message reads, “Tanggapin ninyo ang malugod kong pagbati sa iyong kaarawan. Kalakip ng aking pagbati ang paumanhin na sa ngayon ay wala pang maibibigay na birthday cake sa inyong kaarawan.”
(“Please accept my greetings on your birthday. With my greetings is an apology that for now there is no birthday cake.”)
Abi blamed former mayor Romulo Peña Jr.’s alleged negligence in processing the papers for the birthday cakes of senior citizens.
She also insisted that “the city government could not provide birthday cakes for them pending the results of the Office of the Ombudsman’s investigation on the allegedly overpriced cakes.”
In fact, Peña was also charged with graft in Sep 2015 in connection with the allegation.
So, that’s two mayors charged accused of serving Makati’s senior citizens overpriced cakes. Perhaps, Mayor Abi should stop the birthday cake practice for good.
