Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival Sr./ screen grabbed from Sangguniang Panlungsod Cebu City-Secretariat FB live of the session on July 20, 2022.
CEBU CITY, Philippines –The Cebu City Council has required the City Market Administrator to explain in writing the disruption of a mass held at the Carbon Market compound last Monday, July 18, 2022.
Cebu City Council Minority Floor Leader Nestor Archival Sr., in a privilege speech during the City Council’s regular session on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, raised the issue on the disruption of a Catholic Mass held at the public market amid the clearing operations and transfer of Freedom Park vendors to their interim location last Monday.
Archival wanted the City Market administrator to appear in person during the next City Council session to apprise the Council on what happened and to explain the method it used which must not have been properly explained to the vendors and may be the reason why the eviction “caused panic, confusion, and chaos among the vendors.”
However, Archival’s motion of asking the City Administrator to appear personally before the Council was blocked by Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera, who maintained that under revised House rules approved during its July 6 inaugural session, a City Hall official or employee may be summoned to a City Council executive session for a public hearing.
In all other instances, the City hall official or employee may be required only to explain in writing.
The Council, after a nominal 10-6 voting, agreed to just let the market authority head to explain in writing within one week from July 20 the issues raised by Archival instead of personally appearing before the council during the next session.
READ: Carbon vendors try to break through police line securing people clearing market
In his privilege speech, Archival used his recent visit to Carbon market and the official statement of Fr. Nazario Ace Vocales, the Vicar for Social Advocacies of the Archdiocese of Cebu to justify his move of summoning the City Market operations before the Council.
Vocales, in a statement he issued on July 19, denounced the “gross disrespect” of the religious activity and urged the City Government to take action against the personnel involved who allegedly played loud music while the mass was being held in Carbon.
READ: Church official condemns disruption of Mass during Carbon Market demolition
Fr. Nazario Ace Versales’ statement on the disruption of the Holy Mass with the Carbon Market vendors
“I read the notices (notice to transfer) sent by the City Market Administrator…I believe that this statement are what disoriented the vendors. This is because it is stated that they should transfer to a designated location areas, but they do not now where it is,” Archival said in his privilege speech.
“The MOD (market operations division) can assume that the vendors might be going to the interim market, but where especially the interim market is, we do not know. There are even no documents provided that specify as to where exactly they are relocated. If the people in charge of the relocation cannot even answer where the vendors will be relocated, how much more the vendors?” he added.
/bmjo