Old hands will get major committees in the Cebu Provincial Board

The more senior members of the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) will be given the choice committees when the new provincial legislative body convenes for its inaugural session on July 4.

Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, who has been reelected into office and will against preside over the PB, said she was now finalizing the composition and leadership of the 25 PB committees.

“(We will) give the major committees to the senior board members. That’s the decision we were able to reach. The new ones were very understanding,” she told reporters late Monday afternoon.

The committee on complaints and investigation, the body tasked to investigate administrative cases filed against elected officials in the province, would be headed by incoming Board Member Raul Bacaltos, the only lawyer elected to the PB this year.

“It took some time to convince him, but Raul Bacaltos said yes,” said Magpale.

Bacaltos, of the Gullas-led Alayon party and one of the two representatives of the first district, also handled the same committee when he was a board member around ten years ago.

Magpale said that when she informed him that the committee still has 30 unresolved cases, Bacaltos almost did not accept the post.

But she assured him that two lawyer consultants would be working on the cases and that three of these cases were already up for resolution.

The committee was originally chaired by PB Member Arleigh Sitoy but he later turned over the position to PB Member Grecilda Sanchez due to health reasons.

The committee on budget and appropriations, chaired by now outgoing PB Member Sanchez, was offered to PB Members Jude Sybico and Christopher Baricuatro but both declined.

Magpale said Sybico told her that being the majority floor leader would already take up much of his time while Baricuatro preferred to head the committees on education and health, both of which Magpale said are also major bodies.

The Liberal Party and its allies continue to make up the majority of the board, 11 to four.

The majority bloc includes PB Members Yolanda Daan and Bacaltos (1st district), Jose Mari Salvador (2nd district), Alex Binghay (3rd district), Horacio Franco (4th district), Miguel Antonio Magpale and Sybico (5th district), Glenn Bercede (6th district), and Jerome Librando and Baricuatro (7th district).

The minority is composed of two from One Cebu: PB Members Sun Shimura (4th district) and Thadeo Jovito “Jonkie” Ouano (6th district); and two independents: Edsel Galeos (2nd district) and Victoria Corominas-Toribio (3rd district).