FOURTH District Rep. Gina de Venecia added her voice questioning the propriety of the controversial memorandum of Mayor Benjamin Lim directing all department heads and staff not to attend regular or special sessions and meetings of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) without his prior consent.

“I am disturbed by the report that Mayor Lim issued the memo to all his department heads,” De Venecia said. 
 
She said such a gag order does not seem to correspond with the Aquino administration’s call for transparency in government.

“I would like to think that most, if not all, of the stakeholders in this new administration are one with P-Noy in his mission to bring about change,” she said.

De Venecia, in a statement sent to The PUNCH, pointed out that a similar attempt by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to curtail the public’s right to information through Executive Order 464 was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

“May I remind our city government employees of their obligation and duty as public servants. Let us not lose sight of the fact that we are all here to protect the interest of our constituency,” she said in her statement.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who chairs the SP, and majority of the council members  earlier decried the executive memo.

Following Lim’s memo, three department heads and one consultant defied the invitation of the city council last week to be present in their session to shed light on some vital 
issues. 
 
Two more did not appear during a committee hearing conducted by the city council last August 2.

Lim, Fernandez and some council members have discussed the matter in an Executive-Legislative meeting but Lim stood pat on his position.

The vice mayor said she remains hopeful that Lim will change his mind.

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