4 councilors can hold session, but can’t tackle budget

JAPSON

EVEN with just four members left following the suspension of 12 councilors, the Cebu City council can reach a quorum and hold a session, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

But acting Vice Mayor Lea Japson said they still could not tackle the 2016 budget.

Neither could they discuss the honoraria for the Board of Election Inspectors nor the bonus for City Hall employees because these were not listed in the agenda.

Only Councilors Japson, Richard Osmeña, James Anthony Cuenco and Philip Zafra as ex-officio member are left in the city council. The 12 other councilors were suspended along with Mayor Michael Rama and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella over the calamity aid case.

The agenda for the regular city council session on Wednesday next week include the annual budget of the barangays and Japson’s proposed ordinance granting free delayed registration of birth, marriage and death as well as one-day free issuance of clarifications for birth, marriage and deaths at the Office of the City Civil Registrar every February.

Among the barangays that have submitted their budget were Apas, Basak Pardo, Capitol Site, Guadalupe, Santa Cruz, Tejero, Pulangbato, Camputhaw, Inayawan and Cogon Central Ramos.

Japson said yesterday she received a letter from the DILG regional director Rene Burdeos that cited DILG Opinion No. 034 in 2012 which determines the existence of a quorum based on the remaining members of the council.

“The quorum shall be determined from the remaining four out of the 18 members,” Burdeos stated in his letter dated May 24, 2016.