Mayor-elect shows what kind of stuff he’s made of The city legislature, touted as City Mayor Dan Lim’s last stronghold, was virtually” overran by his sworn political enemies in the aftermath of a “come-from-behind” performance pulled off by the Sangguniang Panglungsud minority who took advantage of the absence of its original presiding officer, V-Mayor Nuevas Tirol-Montes. V-Mayor Montes should have broke the tie in a 5-5 score card, but in a reversal of roles, Mayor-elect John Geesnel “Baba” Yap, number one city councilor, took over the podium to deliver the coup de grace. When the 5-5 equation cropped up whether to recognize Taloto barangay captain Faro Cabalit as president of the Liga ng mga Barangay, city chapter, the house was divided to settle the long pestering issue hounding the city council. In their heydays, the SP majority who is Mayor Lim’s leverage in the city council, held sway for anything favorable to the city mayor, to the consternation of the minority. Until the inevitable came last Friday when the number one city councilor took over the role of presiding officer in time to tackle the Cabalit issue where it was tabled for deliberations for the nth time.

Since last year, Cabalit was the “odd man out” when he was unceremoniously booted out of contention as Liga president paving the way for Pepot Besas, Cogon barangay captain, to take his place. Besas was Liga executive vice president. That started an acrimonious quarrel between two close friends, Mayor Lim and the poor Cabalit. Since then Mayor Lim made it hard for Cabalit to regain his post because every time he asked for it, the SP through the tyranny of numbers has the last say when the issue was submitted for voting. With Cabalit falling from grace from the powers that be at city hall, he sought sanctuary to the national Liga ng mga Barangay where it rendered a decision in his favor. While the Taloto alderman got a favorable decision from the Liga chapter through its board, Mayor Lim’s men sought protective custody from a Regional Trial Court in Makati where they succeeded in securing a permanent injunction. The permanent injunction, notwithstanding, the SP minority when arrayed against the five other councilors identified with Mayor Lim, rose as one to shatter the last bastion of the outgoing city hall tenant. With Baba Yap as presiding officer, when confronted with the 5-5 deadlock, broke the tie by siding the minority. According to some SP watchers, the Yap legislative heroic just showed “what kind of stuff he is made up” when confronted with critical situations.

City Councilor Leonides Borja, in an interview, said the tie-breaker allowed Cabalit to regain his old post as ex-oficio member of the city council. This development was also confirmed by another opposition bloc member City Councilor Anne Mariquit Derikito Oppus in a separate interview the other day. Along with Borja and Oppus, those who voted for Cabalit’s reinstatement were City Councilors Bebiano Inting, Betty Torralba and Edgar Bompat. Opposing the resolution were Councilors Butchie Zamora, Doni Piquero, Jejaw Balbin, Lucille Lagunay and SK president Shane Karaan. Liga president Pepot Besas, who is supported by Montes’ group, did not attend the session. But in a last ditch effort to ditch the voting result, Zamora, a lawyer, insisted that the SP could not possibly pass or enact the Cabalit measure by virtue of the court injunction. But Zamora’s bloc ---- Piquero, Balbin, Lagunay, Karaan ---failed to present a copy of the injunction resulting in the chair ruling that the resolution favoring Cabalit was good as approved.

In desperation, Zamora, the lawyer in him, only went as far as warning his colleagues, the possibility of being cited for contempt. Borja said his group verified with the city secretary if indeed there’s a copy of the injunction furnished to the SP but there was none. He hinted that Zamora’s group “might be bluffing” them just to prevent the resolution from being passed. Asked if this new resolution (favoring Cabalit) would contradict the earlier approved one recognizing, LnB executive vice-president Manolo Blanco, Mansasa barangay captain, , as replacement of Besas who resigned as LnB head, Borja said that the latter (resolution) had no force effect since the session had no quorum. Borja said the resolution (recognizing Blanco) lacks legitimacy because there’s no quorum when it was passed because the boycotted the same session held the other week. Oppus supported Borja’s contention, saying there is no more “legal impediment” in passing the resolution reinstating Cabalit. She said that earlier the opposition bloc respected the court temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the national LnB from reinstalling Cabalit until the court resolves the case filed by Besas before the Makati RTC. (RVO)