A GRAND welcome was awaiting Dagupan Mayor Benjamin Lim at the session hall of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on February 14 for his State of the City Address (SOCA) but he chose not to show up.

Instead, the mayor proceeded to the Dagupan People’s Astrodome to deliver the SOCA before guests invited by the city hall.

A dismayed Councilor Alfie Fernandez, one of the eight in the council’s majority said the mayor cannot just go about his way on the matter of the SOCA citing Section 52 of the Local Government Code.

Section 52 provides that the SP sets the time, date and venue of its regular sessions and the mayor is mandated to deliver the SOCA during a council’s regular session.

“We did not snub the mayor. It was the other way around. It was the mayor who snubbed us,” he said in reaction to allegations by the mayor citing the councilors absence at the Dagupan People’s Astrodome.

“So, to me what the mayor did at the Astrodome was just a simple speech of the mayor before his constituents and could not be considered as SOCA,” he added.

Lim, on the other hand, accused the absent councilors who belong to the majority,  of “conduct unbecoming” of public officials.

“Respect and courtesy are traits all leaders must have. If not respect for another person, at least respect for the office to which they were elected to. Whether you are absent because of resentment, pride, or perhaps you feel threatened, let me be the first to tell you that the only threat we can face are the problems of our city,” Lim said during his speech.

Councilor Librada Reyna, for her part, said she was “much disappointed” by Lim’s non-appearance before the council which prepared for the occasion.

FOLLOWING THE LAW

Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, the council’s presiding officer, stressed that the city council was complying with the law and its house rules when it persisted and reiterated to the city mayor to deliver his SOCA before the sangguniang panglungsod and during its regular session at the SP hall.

“We were observing the law,” said Vice Mayor Fernandez, garbed in Filipiniana like the other council members as part of the formal protocol they set for the occasion.

Aside from Councilors Fernandez and Reyna, the other councilors who waited at the SP session hall for the arrival of Mayor Lim in vain were Maybelyn Fernandez, majority floor leader; Jesus Canto, Karlos Reyna, Librada Reyna, Alipio Serafin Fernandez, Luis Samson Jr., Jeslito Seen and Alvin Coquia.

Four councilors were present at the Astrodome, namely: Councilor Brian Lim, minority floor leader and Lim’s son; Christian Redford Erfe-Mejia, the only other minority member; Liga ng mga Barangay Council president Guillermo Vallejos; and Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president John Chester Gonzales.

Also, 15 of the city’s 31 barangay chairmen waited at the SP while the rest proceeded to the Dagupan People’s Astrodome.

Samson, the most senior among the councilors, said the absence of Mayor Lim was the only time in the history of Dagupan when mayor city did not deliver his SOCA  at the instance of the city council.

“To me, this (sanggunian) hall is the proper venue for delivering the SOCA,” said Samson.

Samson noted that the only exception was when former Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. delivered his SOCA at the Astrodome on January 26, 2010, but that event he stressed was upon the SP’s initiative.

He cited that there was a resolution authored by then Councilor Farah Decano transferring the venue of the session of the SP to the astrodome where they wanted the mayor to deliver his SOCA.

“In today’s situation, there was no such resolution presented, so we do not want to break the law,” said Coquia, adding that the minority in the council could have sponsored it but did not.

In a news conference after the regular session, Vice Mayor Fernandez reiterated the provision stated in Chapter 3, Article 1, Section 455, item iii of the Local Government Code which states that the city mayor “must present the program of government and propose policies and projects for consideration of the Sanggunian Panlungsod at the opening of the regular session of the sangguniang panlungsod and as often as may be deemed necessary as the general welfare of the inhabitants   and the needs of the city government may require. . .”

PICK-UP TEAM

For his part, neophyte Councilor Seen expressed his frustration reiterating his view that the mayor cannot expect the SP “to be his rubber stamp” in the same vein that it is not the “rubber stamp of the vice mayor”.

Seen was among a committee of three councilors formed by Vice Mayor Fernandez to fetch the mayor from the city hall to deliver his SOCA before the SP at their session hall.  The other two were Reyna and Coquia.

The City Hall is reportedly planning to send copies of the mayor’s SOCA to the SP, but Councilor Fernandez said the council may receive these but its content cannot become part of their minutes since it was not delivered during the council’s regular session.

“For all intents and purposes, it’s just a copy of the speech he delivered on February 17,” the councilor said.

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