By Leonardo Micua

 

AFTER almost a day-long hunt for news at city hall on Thursday, I’m now inclined to believe that God, in His most mysterious ways, really intervened to give the Dagupan City administration some period of peace, at least until Christmas. And hopefully a little longer, if the Lord again permits.

This was indicated in the glint in the eyes of Mayor Belen Fernandez and the sweet and gentle smile of her co-workers who never get tired of doing what is best to attend to callers who come to them throughout the day.

I believe that God intervened so that the long-pending 2023 supplemental budget No. 2 in the amount of P557 million and the 2025 annual budget of P1.608 billion pesos could be passed by the new majority of the city council, without any delay, believing in the dictum that a budget delayed is service delayed.

The Lord may have illumined the mind of Atty. Anna Liza Logan, deputy executive secretary for legal affairs of the Office of the President, and who ordered the 60-day preventive suspension of the three opposition councilors who humiliated, disrespected and badmouthed Vice Mayor Bryan Kua during a stormy session sometime in October last year.

The three are still always present in the session hall, no longer as participants in floor deliberations but as mere spectators confined to the gallery, coaching their colleagues in the august chamber on what to say as repartee to the manifestation of Acting Majority Leader Mike Fernandez.

If the seven were still in control as the majority group, there would not have been a ghost of a chance that the supplemental budget and next year’s budget would have been passed according to local government rules, and other items.

Dennis Canto narrated how the city lost the service of one donated ambulance because of their refusal to pass a simple memo authorizing the mayor to sign the MOA with the donor agency.

In the discussion of the 2025 proposed budget, Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia — then chairman of the finance, appropriations and budget committee – demanded voluminous supporting documents that would delay deliberations.

Under his chairmanship, the committee also conducted hearings only after every regular session and was never transparent. And, the department heads were being bullied during committee hearings they called.
The administration of Mayor Belen did not get the fair treatment that it deserved.

Now that a new chair leads the committee following a change of power in the city council, committee hearings are done Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with Tuesdays and Thursdays devoted to sessions to deliberate matters discussed in committee hearings.

Councilor Michael Fernandez, as the new majority floor leader and who now chairs the finance committee, also conducts hearings that are open to the public and even streamed live on social media.

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City Legal Officer Aurora Valle was vindicated by a DILG opinion that upheld her position about the determination of a quorum when former majority leader Councilor Dada Reyna-Macalandia called her “bobo”.  (Atty. Auring passed the Bar exam in her first try and had a thriving law practice before she was asked by Mayor Fernandez to be her legal officer).

She merely read a privilege speech that many presumed was prepared by a non-lawyer pretending to be a lawyer or could be a bar flunker. Besides, she should have read the DILG letter dated November 12, 2024 addressed to Vice Mayor Dean Bryan L. Kua first before opening her mouth.

The letter states: “…. It is the opinion of the office that the suspension of the concerned official operates as a disqualification from performing their duties, therefore the determination of a qualified majority votes should be based on the total number of Sangguniang Panlungsod members who are elected and qualified”.

Simply put, according to the DILG, the total number of SP members who are elected and qualified refers to those who do not have any legal restrictions preventing them from performing their official functions. 

In the case of the Dagupan SP, there are currently 7 qualified members.

I’m sure the DILG opinion rendered by Regional Director Jonathan Paul Lausen Jr. will be appealed before a higher DILG level by the depleted opposition like they earlier did — and lost every time.

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