Council defers approval of disputed minutes

THE Cebu City Council has decided to defer the approval of the 200-page minutes of their regular session last week, which lasted up to two days, from Aug. 7 (Tuesday) to Aug. 8 (Wednesday).

But the tug-of-war between the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) and the United Barug Team Rama still continued yesterday, with five members of the council racing to deliver their respective privilege speeches.

Three of them, Councilors Mary Ann Delos Santos and Sisinio Andales from BOPK, and Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgar Labella from Barug, continued on discussing last week’s fiasco which led to the resurrection of two junked resolutions.

Labella, who is the council’s presiding officer, however, urged members of the body to look for a “proper forum” where they can debate about the validity of the two-day session.

“At the outset, let me be clear with my position as presiding officer that there was a proper adjournment of the session and that the questioned items subject to rigorous debate for the two days have been properly disposed in accordance with our rules,” Labella said.

“If there are further issues that may arise from the said session, it is my humble submission that this assembly has already dispensed its duty and reliefs may be availed of by any other interested party in other fora,” he added.

BOPK, being the administration bloc, is now the majority in the highly-divisive city council while the opposition, Barug, is the minority.

In his separate privilege speech, Andales insisted that Barug’s claims were not valid. He reiterated their party’s stand that the majority has not agreed for the session to adjourn last Aug. 8.

“Robert’s parliamentary rules states that a motion to adjourn, albeit not debatable, yet it needs a majority of votes. The question is asked, was it voted upon the majority of the council? Certainly no,” Andales said.

The two-day stand-off in last week’s session stemmed from Barug’s refusal to approve the P18-billion Kawit Island development project, and converting 10 hectares of land in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City, into a sanitary landfill.

Both were backed by BOPK, but were junked last May.

It prompted Labella to strike them out of their agenda, stating that reintroducing them to the council was invalid.