VELOSO

City Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso was stripped of his chairmanship of the city council's most powerful committee shortly after two new ex officio members of the Sanggunian Panlungsod (SP) were sworn into office last Wednesday. Veloso was in Manila attending a conference of vice mayors when the coup was carried out during the SP session. The revamp was viewed by many as an indication of how the so-called new majority of the SP will rule on issues and cast their vote everytime a legislative measure will be adopted.

Engineered by Kag. Danilo Bantugan, nine councilors voted for a resolution declaring all positions of all committees vacant.

Kag. Oscar Glovasa replaced Veloso as chairman with Kag. Lucio Balbin as vice chair.

Glovasa was also elected as chair of the committee on engineering with Kag. Edgar Kapirig as vice chair.

NEW MAJORITY

It's now 7-5 in favor of Mayor Lim's bloc at the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

This came after two new ex officio members of the SP - newly elected Liga ng mga Barangay president Taloto barangay captain Faro Cabalit and Rammy June Alturas, the city Sangguniang Kabataan Federated president, took oath last Wednesday.

Cabalit and Alturas, who are allied with the mayor, gave the administration block councilors an upperhand (7-5) over those who are allied with Veloso.

The new majority includes pro-administration councilors are Edgar Bompat, Nerio Zamora II, Bantugan, Glovasa and Kapirig.

Councilors identified with Veloso are Anne Mariquit Oppus, Leonides Borja, Balbin and Rama.

Oppus and Borja voted in favor of the two resolutions last Wednesday.

Lim welcomed the reorganization of the SP especially the new leadership of the committees on appropriations and engineering.

It may be recalled that the mayor has criticized the SP for its failure to approve his request for supplementary budget on time.

The mayor likewise cited that there has been no major piece of legislation enacted or major polices formulated by the city council under Veloso.

'BETTER DAYS WITH NEW SP'

"Without a doubt, the executive department welcomed the revamp as a positive development," Lim declared.

He said the reason for this is the position of the new majority to have a common vision with the executive in projects that will benefit the city and its people.

"This is a step that excites the mayor, one thing that should have been put in place at the start of the term of office of officials elected to serve the people until 2010," he added.

Lim said the first sign that things were not well was the desire of Veloso to head the appropriations committee.

"This is scandalous because it is obscene for a vice-mayor from the opposition to aspire for that responsibility," he added.

Lim claimed his fears were proven when the vice-mayor used the position to implement his own agenda.

"Even before he could warm up his seat, he immediately used the position to appropriate funds that were not his and to encroach upon the responsibilities of the mayor," the mayor added.

"The vice-mayor wants the people to believe that they are the only ones who can protect the treasury so he should be the one to chair the committee that is task to appropriate funds," he added.

Following the revamp, Lim said he hopes that the executive can now move with dispatch in implementing its programs.

The mayor was unfazed about the threat of the opposition to sift through every appropriation.

"They make it appear that they are the only ones who know how to save and protect the funds of the city. They are forgetting that they were the ones who wanted a bigger budget if left to themselves," he added.

VELOSO HITS BACK

The vice mayor, who cut short his attendance to the conference in Manila, returned Thursday and met with his councilors.

Veloso expressed dismay over his ouster from the appropriations committee which has been, by tradition, chaired by the vice mayor.

He condemned the move believing it as initiated by the mayor.

According to Veloso, he received reports that it was the mayor himself who drafted the resolution declaring all positions of the SP committees vacant.

He said it was clear that there was pressure from the mayor on the councilors to stage the coup.

The vice mayor declared that the political maneuver of Mayor Lim will not hamper the opposition's determined move to check on every move of the new majority especially on budgetary measures.

"City Hall should remain transparent," Veloso said, especially in the planned huge loan for the implementation of Lim's so-called New Growth Center.

'PUBLIC SERVICE OVER DIRTY POLITICS'

Veloso said the executive and legislative branches cannot be separated in the sense that they should be confrontational from each other.

"To do so would only deprive our people of productive results and high quality of service," Veloso said.

On the mayor's statement that the SP has not enacted a major piece of legislation under his leadership, Veloso added that "the SP is a collegial legislative body and could only validly do its task through collective efforts in crafting policies for the city's priority programs."

"Being in the forefront of implementation is within the mayor's sphere of influence and not of the vice mayor whose main duty is to persuade the SP in the process of legislation," Veloso said.

The vice mayor noted one of the mayor's favorite line over his radio program "that we must draw the line", as being "confrontational" and "not a good statement from an executive" as "drawing the line means creating a gap between the executive and legislative."

The vice mayor concluded that the mayor's so-called "new majority" at the SP "does not give him the license to overlap the functions of the executive and legislative."