Allies of City Mayor Dan Neri Lim in the Sangguniang Panglungsud elevated Wednesday a radio block timer to the “hall of fame and glory” albeit in a negative way. Voting full force, eight SP kagawads identified with the city mayor passed a resolution declaring radio personality Roberto “Batchoy” Alba, a kagawad of Poblacion II as persona non grata. Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso relinquished his post as SP presiding officer and turned over the same to senior Councilor Edgar Bompat when the Alba issue was taken up. Saying he was not privy to Alba's actuation, the vice mayor went out of the session hall when voting time came. According to the resolution, The Most Reverend Leonardo Medroso, bishop of the diocese of Tagbilaran, was the object of an “unfounded, baseless and malicious verbal attacks” by the radio talent.
Mayor Lim's vocal critic City Councilor Zenaido Rama walked out of the voting proceedings. It was the second time that the opposition councilor walked during a SP session. Opposition stalwarts Anne Mariquit Oppus and Bebiano Inting abstained in the voting. In a resolution, the majority bloc voted to declare Alba persona non grata for conduct unbecoming of a public official and grave abuse of the freedom of speech. Those who voted for resolution no. 34-09 were Councilors Bompat, Oscar Glovasa, Leonides Borja, Nerio Zamora II, Faro Cabalit, Lucio Balbin, Edgar Kapirig and Danilo Bantugan.
Sources at Station DYRD denied the SP accusation saying that it was a certain Flora Loquellano who barged into Alba's radio program and rattled off diatribes against Bishop Medroso. The same sources said “it was so much ado about nothing”. According to those who heard Loquellano's stinging tirades, the woman who claimed to be one of the oppositors, lambasted a restoration program in Dauis. Bishop Medroso was one of the signatories to pursue the project.
At the center of the Dauis controversy was philanthropist Bea Zobel de Ayala who threw in millions of pesos of her personal funds to develop the Dauis church complex as another tourism center. VERBAL ATTACK The verbal attack waged by Alba against Medroso however did not sit well with the majority in the city council who noted that as a public official and duly elected barangay kagawad of Poblacion II, he is “sworn to respect and uphold the Constitution including the rights of citizens from baseless, unfounded and malicious attacks”. In their resolution, the councilors said Alba is committed to observe and respect the separation of church and state and the authorities subject to governing laws.
According to the resolution, Alba “maliciously ascribed wrongdoing and subjected to scurrilous verbal attack” no less than Medroso, bishop of the diocese of Tagbilaran, on his radio program last April 3. The resolution said such malicious imputations are totally unfounded except for the perceptions of impropriety manifested by certain quarters within the diocese of Tagbilaran specifically by a few disgruntled parishioners of the Dauis parish church. The councilors said the scurrilous verbal attack uttered by Alba over his radio program on Station dyRD “exceeded the bounds of decency and respect for the authority of the church and its inviolable personality as a separate institution”. They noted that this is not the first time that Alba “has spewed unfounded and malicious allegations an official of the church”. “(H)is repeated, vulgar and unbridled assaults against the church particularly at this time of sobriety and repentance has become a source of embarrassment not only to the parishioners of the Diocese of Tagbilaran but even to the City Government of Tagbilaran,” the resolution added.
The resolution said Alba disregarded his responsibility as a public official to safeguard and defend the rights of citizens from unfounded allegations and especially from scurrilous attacks that violate their right to dignity and self respect. It added that Alba, by his actions and pronouncements, “have shown gross disregard and disrespect” for the church and state, the very institutions upon which are founded the law and order of the community. The resolution said it has become incumbent upon the city council to come up with a position reflecting not only the need to inculcate sobriety and propriety in the exercise of the freedom of speech but to ensure that the line separating the church and the state is respected and upheld. The councilors said the arrogance of Alba in launching unfounded, baseless and malicious attacks against the highest official of the church in the diocese has made it incumbent upon the city council to take a concrete and decisive position on such acts. In a check with Msgr. Jeffrey Malanog, vicar-general and spokesman of the diocese, he said Bishop Medroso will issue a statement in “due time' in connection with the Alba barbs. Msgr. Malanog refused to make any comment regarding the incident saying that it was the bishop's “own turf”.
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