Archival: Better coordination between City Council and chief executive needed in fight against COVID-19

Councilor Nestor Archival | CDN FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Council minority floor leader Councilor Nestor Archival believes better coordination between the executive department and the legislative department is needed in the fight against the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Cebu City.

This he said after the minority bloc failed to get chairmanship or membership of any council committee once again this year, except for ex-officio Councilors Franklyn Ong and Jessica Resch, who hold their usual committee chairmanship for Barangay Affairs and Youth and Sports Development, respectively.

Read: No committees for Cebu City Council’s minority bloc

Archival told CDN Digital that the minority bloc only wishes for better coordination between Mayor Edgardo Labella and the City Council to finally put an end to the health crisis.

He said that despite various resolutions being sent to the executive department seeking for a masterplan or concrete plan on how the city would transition to a new normal, it has not yet been provided to the council.

“Unsa may buhaton nato ig GCQ (General Community Quarantine) na? Ig human ana, unsa may buhaton nato if mahuman na ang mga quarantine? Ang amo gusto is plano unsaon nato pag move forward as a city gikan aning COVID-19,” said Archival.

(What are we going to when it’s GCQ already? After the quarantines are done, what are going to do? What we want is the plan on how the city will move forward from this COVID-19.)

The minority floor leader lamented on how the Interagency Task Force (IATF) had to step in to iron out the city’s COVID-19 response, saying that for three months, the initiatives of the city yielded only to more cases and deaths.

Archival believes this shows that the city’s executive department did not achieve its goal of controlling the virus.

The councilor hopes that after a year in office, Mayor Labella would put his faith on the council more for advice and to help provide inputs on how to address crisis.

Despite being the minority floor with lesser influence compared to the majority, Archival said the council, as a whole body, has proven to be efficient in solving problems if they put their heads together, such was the case in the stench problem in Barangay Kalunasan.

Archival hopes that the chief executive will respect the council more in terms of leadership and not push them aside when deciding for the benefit of the city. /bmjo