THE NEW MAJORITY VS. NEW MINORITY

ALL measures passed by the Dagupan Sanggunian Panlungsod since the 60-day preventive suspension of three opposition councilors are considered legal, valid, and binding, based on a legal opinion of the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) regional office, dated November 12, 2024 and read during the council’s November 14 regular session.

The legal opinion, signed by DILG Regional Director Jonathan Paul Lausen Jr. and coursed through DILG Provincial Director Virgilio Sison, supports the earlier legal opinion rendered by Dagupan City Legal Officer Aurora Valle in response to a query dated November 11 of Dagupan City Vice Mayor and SP Presiding Officer Bryan Kua.

The specific questions raised by Kua were: (1) If three councilors are under preventive suspension, what is the minimum number of Sanggunian members needed to constitute a quorum and transact business; and (2) Given the same set of facts, what is the number required to constitute a qualified majority votes on matters requiring the same?

In answering the first question, DILG pointed to Section 53 of the Local Government Code, which defines a quorum as a majority of all members who have been elected and qualified, and this majority shall constitute a quorum to transact business.

Lausen also cited DILG Legal Opinion No. 16, S., 2006, which upheld the view that the prevention suspension of the vice mayor and five officials of the municipality of Aurora in the province of Aurora “places these officials outside the jurisdiction of the Sanggunian and their preventive suspension constitutes a legal restriction on their ability to discharge their powers, duties, and functions.”

Consequently, the five remaining qualified Sanggunian members would serve as basis for determining quorum, an opinion which is supported by the Supreme Court’s decision in Avelino vs. Cuenca (83 Phil. 17).

“I was vindicated by the legal opinion of the DILG,” Valle told The PUNCH.

Former Majority Floor Leader Librada Reyna Macalanda, in a privilege speech during the November 12 regular session, called the city legal officer bobo or stupid for its ruling on a quorum.

The seven opposition councilors, including the three suspended, continued to maintain that all measures passed by the new majority in the SP should be considered void ab initio or without legal effect as the five majority councilors, including the vice mayor, cannot constitute a quorum. (Leonardo Micua)

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