CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Councilor Jose “Joey” Daluz III has returned to his council seat on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 after serving a six-month suspension.
Daluz was suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas in September 2018 for allegedly failing to explain a sudden increase in his personal assets from 2006 to 2007.
Read: Daluz suspended for 6 months
Daluz said that the past six months has been challenging since this was the first time for years that he was not in public office.
“It has also changed my outlook in politics. Let’s see what happens next,” said Daluz.
Observer
Daluz has filed a motion for reconsideration at the National Office of the Ombudsman in hopes to reverse the decision of the local court.
He said that if the decision was reversed, he could be paid his wage during the six-month suspension. Daluz hopes that the Ombudsman would reconsider his case.
Back in office, Daluz of BARUG-PDP Laban attended his first regular session in six months and he said he simply observed the session.
“Dugay man kong wala so dili kaayo ko kaparticipate sa ubang mga pending resolutions. Pero if naay bago nga reso(lution) maybe makaparticipate ko,” said Garcia before the session began.
(I was gone for a long time so I can’t participate with some of the pending resolutions. But if there are new reso, maybe i could participate.)
Empowering barangays
Meanwhile, Daluz is now looking into proposing to the council that Cebu City’s P2 billion Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) from the national government be allotted to the barangays since the city is already earning from the South Road Properties (SRP).
He said that at least 50 percent of the IRA should now be given to the barangays.
“We need to empower the barangays. Unya kita nalay momonitor,” said Daluz. (Then we will just monitor.)
Daluz said that he seeks for more guidelines in the allotment of the IRA of the city for it to be used in more projects.
He said he understands that without the proper guidelines, the IRA can be for questionable projects.
Daluz said that with the proposed ordinance, the barangays will be empowered to do their projects as well as cater to the needs of their people like garbage collection with minimal interference from the city government. /bmjo