Minority bloc assails City Council’s OK of P240M loan for road repair

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — The majority bloc of the City Council may have succeeded in approving a resolution and an ordinance for another loan of P240 million, the bulk of which is intended for road repair project, but the minority said this was not the end of its opposition against the measures.

Councilor Anne Mariquit Oppus of the minority said the next level, which is through the Provincial Board, may not be that easily done with the tyranny of number.

“For us, it’s not the end of the road. Even if these (resolution and ordinance) were passed last Monday despite our objections and reservations, these will still go through a rigid process, approval by the PB,” Oppus said.

The councilor expected the measures to hit a snag at the PB, citing the conflict between ABC-provincial chapter and the City Council on who is the official ex-officio member representing the ABC-city chapter between Cogon Barangay Captain Philipp Besas and Taloto Barangay Captain Faro Cabalit.

Councilor Bebiano Inting, during the voting, raised the issue on the validity of the ordinance considering that it was Cabalit who was recognized by the PB as the official ABC federated president of the city; while it was the vote of Besas that was considered by the majority bloc of the City Council.

Besas, being affiliated with the majority bloc, had to vote “yes”, representing the ABC-city chapter; while it could have been different if it was Cabalit that was recognized by the City Council as ex-officio member for ABC-city’s seat, because he was more inclined to vote “no.”

Had the City Council recognized Cabalit, instead of Besas, there could have been more “no” votes—from Oppus, Inting, and Councilors John Geesnell Yap, Edi Borja, Edgar Bompat and Betty Torralba—against only five “yes” votes from Councilors Doni Piquero, Nerio Zamora II, Lucille Lagunay, Genesyl Balbin and Arlene Karaan, without the need for a vote from Vice Mayor Nuevas Tirol-Montes to break the tie.

Oppus said the minority councilors put it on the record that they manifested that it was Cabalit who the PB recognizes as the official ex-officio member, not Besas.

Oppus further questioned the practicality of processing for a loan a few weeks to the campaign period when implementation of projects is banned at this time. It would take a minimum of 240 days for the monetary board to render an opinion on the loan application, the reason why there is no rush to pass the resolution and the ordinance now, she said.

“We are hoping that the people of Tagbilaran will speak up like what we did before when we launched the signature campaign against the loan. It would prove that we are speaking in behalf of the majority of the Tagbilaranons. We would be doing that in due time; and I already discussed this with the rest of the minority bloc to support our cause and probably give a copy to the PB for its consideration,” Oppus said.

The majority councilors countered by saying they shared the observation over the necessity to address the bad roads.

Oppus rebutted this, citing the various appropriations for this project in the past, the implementation of which however showed it was inefficient. Inting added by questioning the status of the 34 projects, allocated with funds in 2012, of which only four were completed, 12 are still ongoing, and 18 have not even been started. (FREEMAN)