The picture at right took a life of its own after it was reported last week that V-Gov. Concepcion Lim was at the receiving end of a solomonic solution courtesy of her Capitol tandem, Gov. Edgar Chatto, not favorable to the lady from Valencia. The bone of contention was the protestations of Board Members Dionisio Balite and Godofreda Tirol to become masters of their own budgets in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in the matter of purchasing office supplies and disbursement of gasoline allowances. The conflict resulted in a collision course between the two outspoken board members and the feisty vice governor giving rise to a conciliation meeting held the other week at the Seg Lim Restaurant, Bohol Tropics Resort Club, presided over by Gov. Chatto. It was during that meeting that at least two board members confirmed to the Post that Gov. Chatto took the side with the protesting members who were joined by nine others who were similarly situated. In an inside information leaked to the Post by at least two board members, it was during the same occasion that the toast “all for one, one for all” took place as shown in the picture. But while all board members including Chatto were all smiles in the picture, why was the governor seemed to be frowning?

In a radio interview as a reaction of the Post banner story last Sunday, the governor was emphatic in his denial that there was nothing wrong in the meeting. He said everything went on smoothly and even denied that there was a votation in the meeting belying the figure quoted by the Post source of 10 SP members cheering all for one, one for all. The Post source interpreted the cheers as an affront to the vice governor although Chatto clarified that it was meant to be a toast for Capitol harmony. But as to the voting insinuation, nowhere in the Post story that it did take place. Only the figure of 10 members ranged against the vice governor was not entirely correct. But the same figure of 10 SP members was furnished to the Post by one of the news sources. The source, a lady board member, must have been wrong in her counting of the number of SP members in attendance.

The same source did swear to the grave of her ancestors that indeed Gov. Chatto took side with the Balite-Tirol combination and all the rest joined in questioning the propriety of Lim's centralized procurement system of office supplies for use by the SP. This was confirmed no less by Lim in an earlier interview where she said if the governor were not convinced about her system of fiscal discipline in procurement, then she would should abide whatever decision he made on the issue. Whether the Post got it wrong about the celebrated toast of all for one, one for all, one, two or the other must have fed this paper the wrong info. But what appeared certain as shown in the picture supporting this story was that if the “cheers” for a harmonious relationship in the SP leadership was any laughing matter, why was V-Gov. Lim frowning all the way throughout the whole cordial exercise? At least the same picture as shown at page 1 doesn't lie.