By Leonardo Micua

 

RUSHING against time to make a last hurrah, the seven majority councilors in the Dagupan Sanggunian believe they can still ramp up the approval of three proposed ordinances and two resolutions before the term of six of them expires on June 30.

Based on the  May 27 session agenda, three ordinances seek to bind the new administration of reelected Mayor Belen Fernandez to a number of financial obligations that were up for approval on second reading.

However, their express train was slowed by the lack of quorum: five councilors from the minority bloc, including reelected Vice Mayor and presiding officer Bryan Kua, simultaneously availed of their special privilege leave for the day.

The minority bloc saw the majority’s plans and it felt that if there was any financial obligation to be made, this should be left to the discretion of the next Sanggunian, not the outgoing one.

In their last-ditch effort to rebuild their shattered image and redeem themselves from ignominy because of their endless obstructionism to the Belen administration in the past three years, they now want to legislate measures extending certain benefits to government employees, local and national, and incentives to outstanding athletes, and their trainers and coaches –  again forgetting that they are encroaching on the prerogatives of the executive.

But all these are a mere exercise in futility because, even if these measures are passed,  Mayor Belen can just use her veto power.

So, methinks, the boycott of the minority bloc at the May 27 regular session had this message to their outgoing majority bloc: Your time is up!

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The situation in Sual is very much like what happened in Urdaneta City before the May 12 elections.

Twice, officials of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Pangasinan police stormed the municipal hall to enforce the three-month suspension order on Mayor Liseldo Calugay. But, when asked for a document showing Calugay’s exemption from the Comelec ban on suspensions, they could not show any.

When they returned to Sual last May 26 to see if Calugay’s suspension was already in effect and the proper succession observed, DILG Regional Director Jonathan Paul Leusen Jr. and DILG Provincial Director Virgilio Sison as well as Acting Police Provincial Director Ricardo David still could not produce any exemption from the poll body. 

That means Calugay – who just won a third and final term via a resounding margin against his lone opponent, Arthur Celeste Jr. – remains in his seat. Vice Mayor JC Arcinue, who unfortunately lost his re-election bid to Councilor Max Millan, cannot assume as acting mayor position despite being sworn in last May 5.

What aggravated the situation in Sual was the receipt of two M-16 armalite bullets by Vice Mayor-elect Millan, an obvious sign of a threat on his life.

In Urdaneta, the DILG and the police stormed the city hall on January 7 to serve the one-year suspension each of Mayor Julio Parayno III and his cousin, Vice Mayor Jimmy Parayno. Unable to find the two in their respective offices, the DILG representatives just posted the suspension order at the doors of their offices.

The Paraynos went to court, maintaining that they did not receive their suspension order, and since a few days later, the election period was already on, any suspension order on local government officials must first be approved by the Comelec since their suspension was not in the nature of graft and corruption.

The court could not stop the suspension of the Paraynos because the matter was already consummated, but the judge admonished the DILG, citing that suspension orders should not just be posted on the doors of the offices of the suspended officials, and there was no showing either that DILG ever sent the orders by registered mails to the two Paraynos, which could have been the proper option.

In both Sual and Urdaneta, the DILG officials committed glaring and costly errors that could embarrass their office. 

In the case of Sual, Arcinue can perhaps legally succeed as acting mayor on June 12 after the end of the election period, but that leaves him just a few days in the seat, which he has to vacate by June 30.

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