CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama made a partial veto of the ordinance creating the Cebu City College Scholarship Program because he is against the inclusion of the chairman of the City Council’s committee on social services as member of the board.
Although the name of Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa was not stated in his veto letter, Rama said the partial veto is because “the current chairman of the social services committee is the owner of one of the major institutions accredited under the current scholarship program.”
Rama did not veto the entire ordinance because he is supporting the creation of the City Scholarship Program to be managed by a board that will be headed by the mayor.
But Rama said persons with conflict of interest shall not be allowed to be part of it.
The mayor cited the provision of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, which states that the conflict of interest arises when a public official or employee is a member of a board or has a substantial interest in a business that maybe opposed to or affected by the faithful performance of official duty.
Rama also reminded the City Council that the law also provides that “a public official or employee shall avoid conflicts of interest at all times. When a conflict of interest arises, he shall resign from his position.”
Abellanosa owns the Asian College of Technology (ACT), one of the educational institutions accredited by the city to accept scholars.
The original draft of the ordinance that was presented before the City Council did not include the chairman of the Committee on Social Services as member of the board, but the city legislators moved to include it.
Councilors Jose Daluz III and Edgardo Labella strongly opposed to such move citing conflict of interest, but they were overruled by the number of the city legislators affiliated with the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) when voting was made.
“Tan-awa lang unya kun duna ba’y conflict of interest,” Abellanosa told both Labella and Daluz as he assured them that he will not use his power for his personal interest.
Of the 20 schools accredited by the city to accept scholars, the Asian College of Technology (ACT) has the highest number of students, followed by the University of Cebu, Cebu Technological University and CIT University.
Each of the scholars is entitled to P22,000 scholarship grants for one year or P11,000 per semester.
Rama said he will soon make a policy that would put limit to the number of scholars that can be accepted to a particular school to be fair to other institutions. - THE FREEMAN