Talisay SP session adjourned yet again

CEBU, Philippines - The city council’s regular session the other day was adjourned because of lack of quorum, and, once again, another of Talisay City Councilor Shirley Belleza’s proposal has not been tackled.

Presiding officer and Vice Mayor Alan Bucao dismissed the session after seeing only Belleza, and Councilors Arturo Bas, Ben Abatayo, and Dennis Basillote were in attendance.

Belleza, who is a former chairman on council committee on Tourism, filed for that day’s order of business, a proposed resolution requesting Mayor Socrates Fernandez to direct the city legal officer to file a case against the officers and crew of M/V Majuro “the soonest possible time.”

M/V Majuro ran aground at a portion of the city’s Lagundi Reef, a two-hectare marine protected area, on March 5, 2009. Belleza, in a resolution, said the Chinese ship should be charged in court for destroying the city’s “valuable aquatic heritage.”

Based on the assessment made by Coastal Management Resource of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the damage could amount to P59 million. Belleza said the Tourism Heritage Council has already approved a resolution appropriating P1 million “for the filing and in pursuing the case against M/V Majuro.” She also said the US$10,000 donation of shipmaster Chen Guangming to the city before he left with his ship after his two-day imprisonment, “was never commensurate (sic) to the actual cost of the damage caused done by M/V Majuro to the Lagundi Reef.”

“Talisay City’s inaction would send a wrong signal to M/V Majuro that the city is no longer seeking justice for the damage their ship caused and taint a bad picture for Talisay City not only to environmentalists but to our people as a whole because it would mean that our concern for our marine resources which is the Lagundi Reef, a valuable breeding ground for fishes and aquatic heritage at that, is without substance or credence but only mere lip service,” read the resolution.

There was already a case filed against the ship captain last year, but city prosecutor Marshall Rubia dismissed it for lack of evidence. The city was required to submit additional evidence to substantiate its claim that Cheng violates RA 9147 or the Wildlife Conservation Act for grounding his ship at the said marine sanctuary, but the city had failed to do so, hence, the case was terminated.

Purposely or not, this is the third proposal that the city council snob Belleza’s proposal. The first two ones were for the additional benefits of the city’s barangay health workers and members of the women’s federation. Reportedly politics was behind it, as the administration councilor Belleza instead of siding with her party-mates, has given her support to the candidacy of her husband, former Vice Mayor Aberdovey, who is running for vice mayor under the opposition party.  - THE FREEMAN