Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The minority bloc of the Cebu City Council claimed that they were bypassed once again in the election of committee chairpersons and members for the second year of the 15th Sangguniang Panglungsod.
Only ex officio Councilor Franklyn Ong, the president of the Association of Barangay Councils, and Councilor Jessica Resch, the president of the Sangguniang Kabataan Federation Cebu City, were assigned their usual committee chairmanship on Barangay Affairs and Youth and Sports Development, respectively.
The rest of the minority floor members, including minority floor leader Councilor Nestor Archival, were not given committee chairmanship nor membership.
The other minority bloc councilors include Leah Jaspon, Alvin Dizon, Joy Augustus Young, Raul Alcoseba, and Eugenio Gabuya, Jr.
Majority floor leader, Councilor Raymond Garcia, told CDN Digital that Vice Mayor Michael Rama verbally offered to the minority floor membership to some committees but none of them accepted the position.
“As far as I know, they were offered the position by the vice mayor. But they refused,” said Garcia. “As for the rest of the chairmanships and committees, we agreed over them. That was a consensus.”
In many previous sessions, Vice Mayor Rama would occasionally suggest that some minority floor members join the committees. But it did not happen this year.
Check and balance
Vice Mayor Rama told CDN Digital that he no longer sent formal invitations to the minority floor members since he expected them not to accept the chairmanship or membership anyway.
He said he tried to offer the positions in a talk with Archival, but the minority floor leader signified that they will not be accepting any chairmanship or membership.
However, Archival said in a separate interview said no such offer was given to the minority floor members.
Despite the lack of hold in any of the committees except for Barangay Affairs and Youth and Sports Development, Archival said that the minority floor will continue to work for the betterment of the Cebu City constituents.
He said they will serve as “fiscalizers” in the council that will provide a “check and balance” in all council matters.
He assured the public that the minority has never and will never be discouraged by the lack of committees to work for the good of the city. /bmjo
Read: Cebu City prepares first 2,000 travel certificates for LSIs