On “discrepancies” in exemption request: City council’s claim unfounded - CLO

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Legal Office (CLO) has dismissed as unfounded the Cebu City Council’s allegations of discrepancies in the request submitted to the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) seeking exemption from the ban on the disbursement of public funds.

In a letter response to the council, City Attorney Santiago Ortiz maintained that the submission was aligned with the council’s approved version. The letter was noted during the council’s latest regular session on Wednesday.

The controversy stemmed from a privilege speech by Vice Mayor Donaldo Hontiveros, who pointed out that the request submitted by the CLO to COMELEC differed from the one approved by the council. The council then moved to formally notify the COMELEC National Office of the alleged discrepancy and requested the CLO to amend the petition to reflect the approved version.

According to the CLO, they received a copy of the council’s resolution, including Annexes B and C, on February 7, 2025. These annexes contained the deducted or approved amounts, which the council had revised during its February 5, 2025, session.

Despite prior heated discussions, the city council approved a resolution allowing the exemption of 133 items from the COMELEC ban on disbursements during the election season. However, the council made multiple amendments, particularly reducing appropriated budgets, which were documented in Annexes B and C.

The CLO’s letter asserted that these amendments were reflected in handwritten notations made by the Sangguniang Panglungsod (SP) Secretary during the session.

The resolution authorized Mayor Raymond Alvin N. Garcia to seek an exemption from COMELEC on the prohibition against the release, disbursement, or expenditure of public funds for social services and housing-related projects. The request was made in relation to the May 12, 2025, National and Local Elections.

The CLO further explained that the deadline for filing the exemption request was February 11, 2025. Given the time constraints, their office submitted the petition personally to COMELEC’s Legal Department in Intramuros, Manila, on February 10, 2025, attaching Annexes B and C as provided by the SP Secretary.

“This office followed the letters of SP Resolution No. 16-2394-2025 as we deemed it prudent not to unilaterally revise the contents of Annexes B and C because, aside from time constraints, there was no formal directive from the City Council for this office to do so,” the CLO’s letter stated.

The CLO argued that they operated in good faith, assuming that the handwritten corrections in Annexes B and C had been warranted by the council. They maintained that there was no misrepresentation on their part.

To ensure the council’s amendments were considered, the CLO stated that the petition included footnotes on page 3, directing COMELEC to take note of the SP Secretary’s annotations. Additionally, they attached individual department submissions, marked as “Annexes D series.”

Given these explanations, the CLO concluded that the council’s claim of discrepancies in the approved annexes was baseless. They emphasized that filing the exemption request was a COMELEC-mandated requirement for the upcoming elections.

“The timely filing is imperative, as failure to do so would jeopardize the social services and housing-related projects of the Cebu City Government during the entire period of the ban from March 28, 2025, to May 12, 2025,” the CLO stated. “Needless to say, such suspension of operations will greatly affect the entire constituency of the City of Cebu.”

However, during his privilege speech, Hontiveros criticized the CLO’s actions, noting that a councilor had reviewed the petition and found that the submitted Annex B did not match the amended version approved by the council.

“This action, whether an oversight or an intentional act, is highly irregular and frankly repulsive. It undermines the integrity of our legislative processes and disregards the authority of this august body,” Hontiveros declared.

“The question is, why was this allowed to happen? Who authorized the submission of Annex B that does not correspond to the version amended and approved by the body?” he added.

Hontiveros concluded that the incident constituted a breach of trust and called for accountability from the CLO. (CEBU NEWS)