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VOLUME XXII No. 23
Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines
December 16, 2007 issue
 

They fight city hall & paid dearly for it

 

 

City hall which is sometimes pictured as an immovable object when confronted with an irresistible force exacted a heavy toll on two minority members of the Sangguniang Panglungsod. The case of V-Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso and City Councilor Zenaido Rama was a prime example of the time-honored tradition that “you cannot fight city hall”. Long considered as the “flies in the ointment” of City mayor Dan Neri Lim, the end came for the two maverick legislators Wednesday when the tyranny of numbers was unleased to settle an old score pestering the voting pattern of the SP since Day One of the members' assumption to office. Now clearly getting the upper hand, the SP majority set in motion a legislative revolt by stripping the two of their committee chairmanships. It came in the form of a resolution by Kagawad Danilo Bantugan which declared all positions vacant in the committee compositions of all standing committees of the city SP.

On the surface, the revamp looked as if it was intended to all standing committees but when the smoke of battle was cleared, it became apparent that it was more dedicated to the proposition that all SP men were not created equal in the yes of Mayor Lim. Although Mayor Lim chose to play coy about his role of the sudden reorganization of the SP committees, his body language betrayed his real intention—stripped Veloso and Rama of their respective committees chairmanship. Veloso was left holding the empty bag when he was stripped the chairmanship of the powerful committee on appropriation. Rama, who once upon a time a very close friend of Mayor and now a bitter enemy, was denied the chairmanship of the committees on engineering, tourism and environmental protection. In the aftermath of the reorganization, the committee on appropriation went to Kagawad Oscar Glovasa while Rama's committees' chairmanships were shared by Glovasa for engineering and public works, Kagawad Leonides Borja for tourism and environmental protection for Kagawad Nereo Zamora II.

After he 3was divested of the chairmanships of the three committees, Rama was reduced to being member of the committees he used to lord over. Veloso also became a member of all SP committees. For Mayor Lim, it was some sort of a trial balloon to test the potency of the new majority he mustered in the Sangguniang Panglungsud. Even those who were perceived to be not in Lim's camp lent their precious votes to the SP coup de etat. The were Kagawads Anne Mariquit Oppus and Borja. What was unfortunate was that at the time the SP mutiny took place, Veloso was in Manila sparing him the indignity of being divested of the plum post of chairman of the committee on appropriation. Lim was apparently emboldened to eng8neer the revamp after two of his proteges—Faro Babalit and Rammy June Alturas won their respective bids for president of the Association of Barangay Councils and the Sangguniang Kabataan.

 
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