There's no hurt feelings when the baton of the Bohol Sandugo Foundation Inc. was turned over to its new management. Thus explained Mario Uy, foundation president, who felt alluded to in a published report (in The Post) that it was virtually wrestled from him the old management to handle the staging of this year's Bohol mardi gras. By wrestled, it was taken to mean by Uy that there was power struggle before it was finally handed down to its new management. According to Uy, there was no pressure for him to turn over the handling of the festival to the provincial and city governments. He said it was out of the goodness of his heart that he readily turned over the Sandugo to the new management if only to eliminate any iota of doubt that he practically ran the whole show all by his lonesome self.

There were insinuations probably from his enemies from within the core group that he virtually monopolized all the decision-makings of the Sandugo. As to the issue of whether or not there was proper accounting of Sandugo funds during his term, he said nothing was further from the truth. In fact, he said, records would show, that year after year, he submitted an accounting of every centavo being spent. He said he cannot escape responsibility to account the funds because there's a Commission on Audit who acted “like a monkey on his back” who pointed at the slightest of discrepancies once he submitted the accounting records.

The COA was always on the lookout for any hint of fund juggling because the Sandugo operations involve public funds. For Sandugo to keep on going, it has to rely heavily from the good graces of local governments (city and province), or else it will just fold up for lack of funds, Uy said. It may be true that private sponsors also lent a helping hand but its donations are not sustainable enough to make the Sandugo a stand-alone enterprise, Uy added.