The
manifesto signed by eight out of ten incumbent city councilors supporting the
leadership of Vice-Mayor Nuevas-Tirol Montes which was published in local newspapers
last Sunday created quite a stir in the ranks of the ruling Lakas-CMD party in
the city.
For
one, the manifesto was published in toto, hence, under the rule on evidence, nothing
can be deduced more from what was being reduced in writing.
Unfortunately,
in the world of politics, the manifesto is subject to many interpretations depending
upon which side of the bread of the reader is being buttered.
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As
a signatory to the manifesto, the language of the manifesto, to our understanding,
raised three important things.
One,
that we admire and recognize the brand of leadership of the lady vice-mayor as
our presiding officer in the 9th Sangguniang Panlungsod. This explains why even
the non-Lakas city councilors also signed the manifesto.
Second,
that we are supporting her re-election bid as city vice-mayor given her exemplary
performance as our leader in the city council.
Third,
that she is the highest elected official of the Lakas-CMD in the city level and
pursuant to the time-honored party rule on the equity of the incumbent, she has
our unequivocal, unconditional and unqualified support. These are facts and these
are undisputed.
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There
was nothing in the manifesto that mentioned about impeaching or even challenging
the leadership of DOTC Asec. Joe Torralba as the Lakas-CMD chair in the city.
In
fact, in our letter to Gov. Erico Aumentado signed by the city vice-mayor and
the six Lakas city councilors minus the two non-Lakas SP members, we also did
not mention about Torralba or even City Mayor Dan Lim.
We
just leave the decision to the provincial party directorate whoever would they
endorse as the official standard bearer of Lakas-CMD for the city.
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In
other words, we support not only the re-election bid of the incumbent city vice-mayor
but as well as our assertion of being the incumbent city councilors as the priority
in the official slate of Lakas-CMD in Tagbilaran.
Being
tasked by the other signatories to deliver manifesto and its accompanying letter
to Gov. Aumentado to the various media outlets, we preferred not to write the
news article about it considering that we would be a biased writer being one of
the signatories thereof.
We
just left to the task of writing the news item to the media outlets. Unfortunately
again, the news writers took a controversial angle out of the manifesto, which,
under rule on evidence, maybe considered "extrinsic" - meaning the circumstances
behind and affected by the manifesto and the letter.
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As
one of the signatories of the manifesto and the letter to Gov. Aumentado, we invoke
Republic Act 1477 in not divulging the "extrtinsic" angle although we
already made a public pronouncement over Station DYRD's top-rated Inyong Alagad
program yesterday morning.
Lastly,
if we only received the invitation to attend the Lakas meeting hastily called
by the former city mayor last Monday afternoon, we would have been the first one
to sign the manifesto manifesting our recognition of his leadership as the chair
of Lakas-CMD in the city.
Vice-Mayor
Montes, City Councilors Lucio Balbin, Macky Olario and yours truly did not receive
the invitation. Only City Councilors Urbano Lagunay, Edi Borja and Oscar Glovasa
received theirs.
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