PERISHABLE goods provided by the Cebu Provincial Government were reportedly left to expire in Cordova’s evacuation center in Barangay Gabi.This was what Cordova Mayor Cesar “Didoy” Suan disclosed after he conducted an ocular inspection at the Cordova Evacuation Center on Thursday, July 28, 2022.Suan said he has ordered an investigation to determine why the piles of instant noodles, rice, milk and coffee were left stockpiled and eventually to expire there.“Sakit pamalandongon nga wala kini mahatag sa mga Cordovanhons katong mamahimo pa ning makaon o mainom. Dili ko buot mo blame sa previous administration, pero ganahan ko makabalo unsay nahitabo ug nganung napasagdan kini,” Suan said in a statement posted on the town’s Facebook page on Thursday.(It is truly painful to see that the items being kept there didn’t reach our constituents. I have no intention of blaming the previous administration, but I want to know why these items were left abandoned.)Suan said he plans to properly dispose of the expired goods.Not donationsSuan’s predecessor and rival, former Cordova Mayor Mary Therese “Teche” Sitoy-Cho explained that the expired goods were given by the Cebu Provincial Government in 2020 as part of its program to sell affordable goods to the public due to quarantine measures brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.She said the expired goods were not donated to the municipal government when she was still mayor, but were given by the Province through its “Tindahan sa Kapitolyo” program.The program was initiated by the Provincial Government to give the people access to basic supplies at affordable prices amid the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when border restrictions were imposed.“Ang maong mga items dili donasyon o ipanghatag kundili baligya kini nga wala mahalin. Ug tungod panag-iya kini sa Probinsya, dili makabuot ang lungsod kon unsay buhaton niini,” Sitoy-Cho said on her Facebook page on Saturday, July 30.(These items were not donations for giving away but were supposed to be sold to the public but were not bought by anyone. And since the Province owns the items, the town could not just decide on what to do with them.)Sitoy-Cho recalled that she wrote a letter to Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia on April 7, 2021, requesting the latter to just donate the goods to the town.The goods were reportedly received by personnel of the Department of Agriculture in the town in May 2020 since they were tasked by the Capitol to monitor and sell the products.The goods were initially kept at the Cordova Sports Complex but were later transferred to the Cordova Evacuation Center in Barangay Gabi as the former was being renovated.