Council fails to elect committee heads, members

ATTEMPTS at electing the committee chairmanships and memberships at the Cebu City Council were thwarted by Barong Team Rama councilors, who questioned the issue of coming up with a simple majority.

During yesterday’s inaugural session, the new majority floor leader, Margarita Osmeña nominated only Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) for chairman, vice chairman and members of 23 of the 24 standing committees of the city council.

The only Team Rama member nominated was ex-officio member Philip Zafra to chair the Public Affairs committee and only because he represented the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) being president.

There are eight Team Rama councilors while BOPK has nine.

Vice Mayor Edgar Labella, being the presiding officer, is considered the 18th member of the council. Labella however is a non-voting member. The only time he can vote is to break a tie.

Councilor James Anthony Cuenco moved for the deferment of the election after objecting to the election of the chairman, vice chairman and members of the standing committees.

He said there were some “serious legal issues,” which were raised on the determination of “simple majority.”

“We would want more time to be able to thresh out these differences until then (we will have) a corollary motion, I will move for the deferment of the election of the members,” Cuenco said.

However, Councilor Mary Ann delos Santos said Cuenco was very vague about the concerns and issues regarding the election.

Cuenco explained there is an issue on the determination of the simple majority since out of the 18 members of the council, eight objected the election.

Labella said that during the election of the president pro tempore, majority floor leader, and assistant majority floor leader, there were no objections.

But as for the election of the various committees chairmanships, only nine councilors voted while eight were against.

Because there are 18 council members, there should be 10 votes to reach a simple majority as mandated by the Supreme Court, Labella said.

“But the vote was only nine that is why I admonished members of the council to sit down together to be able to come up, not necessarily they being of this party or of that party, for the purpose of the coming up with the majority,” Labella said.

As mandated by the Supreme Court, Labella said they are obliged to comply the simple majority requirement.

The city council is composed of 18 members including the vice mayor. Labella said that the half of the members plus one is the the total number of the majority, and in this case, the simple majority should be 10 votes.

“If they (councilors) question it, maybe they can go to court; but we are disciples of law and we just cannot disregard, otherwise all our legislative enactments will be subjected to legal attack,” Labella added.

The election for the committees chairmanships was deferred to the next regular session next week.

The reorganization at the city council stemmed from several Barog Team Rama councilors going over the fence to BOPK.