DILG to resolve majority dispute in City Council

THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) will resolve the dispute between the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) and Barug Team Rama blocs over what constitutes the majority in the City Council.

This came after Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella met with Councilors Margot Osmeña and James Cuenco and all agreed to seek the DILG opinion on the case.

Osmeña is the council’s majority leader, while Cuenco is the minority leader.

Osmeña said the minority initially chose to give way to the BO-PK bloc under the condition that the minority will be accommodated in some of the committees, which BO-PK declined.

The BO-PK maintained that the vice mayor as presiding officer should not be included in the computation for determining the majority in voting.

But Councilor Joy Pesquera said the majority should be defined as constituting half of the council plus one.

She said this means the majority should be 10 councilors since the council has 17 councilors.

Half of that number is 8.5, and Pesquera said majority should be 9.5 which must be rounded off to 10.

Councilor Mary Ann delos Santos said Barug Team Rama is resorting to legal maneuvering to delay the reorganization of committees, which was supposed to start last July 4.