Who is holding Cebu City residents hostage by deferring approval of the P2.8 billion Supplemental Budget 1?
Mayor Michael Rama posed this question to frame the stubborn refusal of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bloc to approve the extra budget which is sourced from P6-billion-plus proceeds from the sale of two lots of the South Road Properties (SRP).
The question was reinforced by the drama of hundreds of Cebu City Hall employees in black arm bands and a few garbage trucks at a rally outside City Hall on Wednesday.
The BO-PK raises questions or doubts about the legality of the sale of the SRP lots by public bidding, and hence any use of its proceeds.
Councilor Margot Osmeña, head of the budget committee, cited anew the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) opinion on the ordinance that seems to tie the mayor’s hands in selling SRP lots to the council’s say-so. They also bring up Mayor Rama’s record of fiscal management, pock-marked with auditors’ adverse notes and disallowances.
It’s clear to the public that legal infirmities and doubts about the mayor’s administration skills are not the core issue.
It’s obvious that the mayor’s critics in the council don’t want him to benefit at all from the windfall of cash sales from the SRP.
Neither do they want him to gain any credit for projects or services that would financed by proceeds from the SRP sale.
The bonanza comes on the eve of a reelection campaign, something the BO-PK knows is fodder for Team Rama canons.
Rama’s response, and that of his lieutenants, is just as political. Who else but a seasoned gamesman would think of mobilizing the first-ever protest demonstration by City Hall employees against city legislators?
The spectacle of grim-faced employees with black arm bands greeting the arrival of City Councilors for their regular session was intended to put pressure on the BO-PK and draw public sympathy to the stymied Rama administration.
But is Mayor Rama really helpless?
With a 9-7 vote in the City Council to defer again any discussion on SB No. 1, all it would take is one more vote for a tie. That crucial tie would then have to be resolved by the presiding officer.
Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella’s tie-breaker would reopen discussion and perhaps approval of the budget.
Since no court can issue an order to the City Council to resume discussion on a budget ordinance (that would mean superceding judgment on a matter plainly within the legislative agenda), Mayor
Rama is better off focusing his stratetic acumen in finding that extra vote. It’s less costly than mobilizing City Hall staff to make a spectacle.