COUNCIL FEUD
The Barug Team Rama bloc’s refusal to yield the committee chairmanships in the City Council could paralyze budget appropriations and other services to Cebu City residents, Mayor Tomas Osmeña warned yesterday.
The mayor said the Barug Team Rama bloc is creating their own interpretation of the law when they questioned the propriety of his Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bloc in taking over the committee chairmanships.
Councilors allied with Barug Team Rama claimed that a simple majority of numbers in the council didn’t justify BO-PK’s move to reorganize the council committees.
“BO-PK is now the majority. Anyone who knows how to count can see that. They are using a technicality that the majority should be 10 because it should be 50 percent + 1. So to pass an appropriation, you have to have the majority, which they are saying is 10,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña said the Barug Team Rama’s position is an insult to the democratic process.
He said this falls squarely on the lap of Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who he said was employing his legal expertise to position their group as a ruling minority.
Councilor Jose Daluz III, who’s allied with Barug Team Rama, said their position is supported by an opinion from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Supreme Court.
“We are not making this up. We presented it to them. We called a meeting. In fact, I felt that they already know this because when we presented it to them, they weren’t shocked. (Councilor Margarita Osmeña) si Margot miingon, ‘Yes, yes, I know this case,’” he said.
Citing the DILG opinion, Daluz said Labella, as both presiding officer and a council member, is not only included in determining a quorum in the council but also in deciding the number of majority votes required to pass an ordinance.
Daluz said they only wanted to know what power they hold in the City Council.
The mayor earlier announced that none of the Barug Team Rama councilors will receive committee chairmanships.
Daluz said, as courtesy to the council, the BO-PK camp will have to wait for the final decision before they sit on the committees they had agreed on.