Results of barangay polls crucial to party dominance in council

Thousands ofpotential young voters occupied Osmeña Blvd. corner P. Burgos street as they trooped to the Cebu City Comelec office to register so they can vote for the coming SK and barangay election. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

With barangay elections this October slowly heating up, members of the Cebu City Council have begun involving themselves in the campaign trail as results of this election are considered crucial in directing the leadership of the Cebu City government.

Cebu City Councilor Jose “Joey” Daluz admitted that they have all become very interested in the results of the barangay polls as results would mean additional seats for the city council through the ex-oficio memberships of the elected Association of Barangay Council (ABC) President and the Sangguniang Kabataan President.

“We’re sure the other party does that too. That is no secret because we want the two seats in the council. If we have a majority in the barangay captains and the SK, that would be additional seats for us. We are hoping those who will win will have the same wavelength, same thinking as us so that we will have more allies in the council, same political views,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Absolute Majority

At present, Team Rama holds a simple majority in the council with ten elected councilors and ABC President Philip Zafra allied with the party.

To gain the “absolute majority,” Team Rama needs to retain the ABC seat and win the SK Federation chairmanship which has one automatic seat in the council.

“We have to keep the ABC on our side. The simple majority is ten. If the mayor vetoes a legislative measure, we can’t override it. But if we are 12, we can override any veto of the mayor, ” Daluz said.

Asked for her comment, Councilor Margarita Osmeña, wife of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said, “Why are they thinking of vetoing? I thought they are not going to be obstructionists.”

She, however, said she was not surprised by what she called the early campaigning done by councilors affiliated with Team Rama.

“Let them do what they want to do and BO-PK will do what we have to do also,” the councilor said.

Talking

But Daluz clarified that while Team Rama councilors have been talking to their constituents about their favored candidates for barangay captains and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK), they are each doing it on their own, and not as members of a political party as the barangay elections are supposed to be nonpartisan.

“I cannot help it because I am very interested about the results of the barangay elections as a registered voter of Barangay Calamba. I talk to people, and if I’m asked who I’m voting for, I will tell them hoping that they will follow me. I’m not campaigning, bringing the name of the party,” Daluz said.

“For instance, I want to see that in Barangay Calamba, the one who is elected is not a supporter of drug lords, is competent and qualified,” he added.

The same goes, he said, for Councilor James Cuenco, a registered voter in Barangay Guadalupe; Councilor Joy Pesquera, a voter in Barangay Kinsang-an; Councilor Edu Rama for Barangay Basak; Councilor Dave Tumulak for Barangay Basak Pardo; Councilor Hans Abella for Barangay Punta Princesa and the rest of the Team Rama-affiliated councilors.

“Each of us are interested in our own barangays where we live on the person who will win because we will be affected in the barangay.” Daluz said.

According to Daluz, former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is “also going around feeling the pulse of the people, just like us.”

“We do pulong-pulong to consult people because we want to serve them better, not necessarily because of the coming barangay elections.” said Daluz.

Registration

Meanwhile, thousands of youth trooped to the office of the Commission on Elections yesterday to register as a voter.

Yesterday was the last day of registration for the SK and Barangay Elections scheduled in October.

Because the number of registrants was growing bigger, Cebu City North district election officer lawyer Marchel Sarno said they decided to give out priority numbers to the first 1,000 people at around 9 a.m. on Saturday.

“Naa gyoy kasikas gamay kay daghan kaayo nag linya kay kahibaw naman ta nga last day, anha gyod na sila moduol aron magpa-register (There was some confusion because there were so many registrants lining up. We know that they would come on the last day to register),” he said.

He said that they decided to give out priority numbers because Comelec would have to stop the registration at 5 p.m. in order to meet their deadline

“Tungod sa kabaga sa tao nihatag nalang mi og priority kutob 1,000. Kay dili ni mahuman og alas singko kung i-accomodate tanan. Maabtan ni og alas 8 sa gabii, (Because of the big number of registrants, we decided to give priority numbers up to 1000 becayse we will not be able to finish at 5 p.m. if we accommodate everybody.)” he said.

Comelec finished processing the 1,000 registrants hours before the cutoff time, so they accommodated 150 more registrants.

He said Comelec still has to segregate how many registered for SK and how many for the barangay, but all in all, they were able to register around 1,500 persons.

As of Friday, there were already 29,969 who registered for the Sangguniang Kabataan and Barangay elections since July 15.