Department heads continue to snub council

THE RELATIONSHIP between the Mayor’s Office and the Sanggunian Panlungsod continues to be strained despite earlier assurances of cooperation between them by Mayor Benjamin Lim and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Last week, department heads again snubbed the invitations by the city council to appear except for two who attended a session just to defend the request of Mayor Benjamin Lim for a P7.2 million supplemental budget.

Lim earlier issued a memorandum directing all department heads not to attend regular or special sessions and meetings of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) and its committees without his prior consent.

Those who attended the session last week were City Treasurer Romelita Alcantara and the Virgilio Tangco, assistant chief of the budget office who substituted for Budget Officer Ildefonso Calilim.

Tangco asked to identify sources of revenue to fund the P7.2 million supplemental budget as requested by the mayor’s office.

Five department heads and one consultant invited by the legislative body, however, failed to appear to respond to questions about city hall’s operations.

These were City Social Welfare and Development Officer Elsa Santillan, City Agriculture Officer Emma Molina, City Engineer Virginia Rosario, City 
Accountant Teresita Manaois, Market Superintendent Carlito Vallo, and consultant Phillip Soria.

The above-named officials were invited by the SP to clarify their positions pertinent to specific issues on governance i.e., Santillan on the reported expired goods kept at her office, Molina on illegal fish pens, Rosario on some infrastructure projects in the city, Manaois on alleged buying-spree of the previous administration under Mayor Alipio Fernandez, Jr., Vallo on operations of the city market, and Soria on his televised statement that the city government no longer has available funds to pay its employees.

TRANSPARENCY

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who concurrently sits as chair of the SP, reiterated that the mayor’s memorandum is impeding the work of the legislative body since his controversial memorandum effectively prevents the city council from getting vital information about city hall’s operations to aid the body in crafting resolutions and ordinances.

Fernandez said the gag order is not in keeping with the principle of transparency that all 
public officials must uphold.

The local government code mandates the mayor to provide information as needed by the city council in the performance of the latter’s function.

She again urged Lim to reconsider his position.

WRITTEN REPORT

Meanwhile, Santillan said she was directed by City Administrator Vlad Mata not to attend and instead simply provide a copy of her written report submitted to the mayor, to the SP.

In her report to the mayor, Santillan explained the incident that transpired on July 31 wherein a reporter from a local television and a member of the City Information Office allegedly barged into her office and opened cabinets and drawers without her permission searching for alleged expired goods. The incident was reported on tv.

Santillan has already filed a case against the reporter and the CIO personnel before the Human Rights Commission.

The other department heads offered no explanation for their absence in last week’s council meeting—LM

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