Talisay dad to lobby loan anew for Tabunok market

CEBU, Philippines – A minority councilor in Talisay City seeks to re-file a resolution granting Mayor Johnny De los Reyes authority to enter into a loan for the construction of a new market in Barangay Tabunok.

Councilor Aldin Diaz will sponsor the resolution following the turning down of the same resolution last week in a special session by the City Council.

However, Diaz told The FREEMAN that the resolution was not disapproved at all because there was a question of quorum.

"The resolution last week was not killed or disapproved. The resolution requires the absolute majority votes of the members of the council," Diaz said, citing that only six were present during the special session.

While administration councilors got the majority vote, the resolution was disapproved after they failed to get six votes for an absolute majority.

Vice Mayor Romeo Villarante said the resolution was disapproved because the legislative body was incomplete during the session.

Only Councilors Danilo Caballero, Aldin Diaz, Valeriano Ylanan, Dennis Basillote, Socrates Fernandez and Association of Barangay Councils president Raul Cabañero were present during the special session while majority floor leader Richard Francis Aznar, Councilors Doroteo Emit, Antonio Bacaltos Jr., Edward Alesna and Eduardo Gullas III were absent.

Diaz said he is re-filing the resolution in today's regular session to give way to other members of the council to render their votes.

Meanwhile, Fernandez, who is the chairman of the Committee on Infrastructure, insisted that the city need not to get a loan from the bank for the construction of the market even if the executive department was able to submit its feasibility study.

Fernandez said the opinion from the Bureau of Local Government Finance is necessary before the city enters into the loan.

But Diaz, for his part, believes that an application for loan is most advantageous option for the city government to have an immediate funding for the project. — Garry B. Lao

"After careful deliberations, thorough studies, and consultations, decided that there is an urgent need, in fact time is of the essence -- to construct a modern and new public market in lieu of the old, dilapidated, disorderly and unsafe Tabunok Public Market, in order to augment the income of the city government, being an economic enterprise, to address the needs of the buying public for the next 30 years, for the sustainable development of the entire Tabunok commercial district and for the welfare of the general public," Diaz said in his proposed resolution.