Crisis in Malabon: A tale of two mayors

The people see no end in sight to the crisis of two mayors now trying to outwit one another even as Malabon City Mayor Amado Vicencio, restored to his post by a special division of the Court of Appeals (CA) only 15 days before his term expires on June 30, and Acting City Mayor Mark Allan Jay Yambao both refused to give in to the other, clinging, as it were, for dear life to the mayor’s seat.

Mercifully, both officials kept away from the city hall yesterday. In doing so, they have diffused any further tension and avoided any spark that could trigger unwanted violence in the city. Both Vicencio and Yambao’s absence was seen to head off any such eventuality.

As both camps wrangle over who should rule and reign, the people of Malabon and the bureaucracy are caught in the middle. The city now stinks as garbage remain uncollected, basic services have generally ground to a halt and salaries of bewildered city hall employees put on hold. They claimed they do not know now whom to follow. The city hall has a complement of some 2,000 employees, including contractuals, casuals and those with plantilla positions. City treasurer Ernesto Pabustan said the city allocates some P10-million for their salaries every 15 days. It was payday last Tuesday but the employees have yet to receive their salaries.

"Up to now, we cannot identify kung sino ang susundin. Mabuti siguro silang dalawa (Vicencio and Yambao) na lang ang pumirma sa vouchers para maayos na ito (paying out of salaries)," Pabustan told The STAR in jest.

Compounding the city hall’s dilemma, the utilities (Meralco, PLDT and Maynilad Water) are collecting, even threatening to cut off services to the city hall, sources said, but it seems they will have to wait for better days because of the impasse. Pabustan, early on, has assured Malabon taxpayers that the city has enough funds to cover mandatory obligations, including the payment of salaries of city hall employees. The official said before anyone could accuse him of doing nothing, he has prepared a draft of a letter seeking from the stalemate.

"Pareho silang nagbigay ng memo, dinagdagan pa ng opinion ni City Legal Officer (Danilo Diaz). I plan to refer these to the local DILG so he can bring it up to his superiors and decide immediately on the problem," Pabustan said. He said the draft would be finished by today, Thursday. City employees are upbeat about the problem coming to a head by next week. Meanwhile, Pabustan said they are on a wait-and-see mode.

"I can see no other way. I have to do something (in the absence of any likely move by Vicencio and Yambao to give up)," Pabustan said.

Local political observers say both officials are burdened by the image they have to protect with both Vicencio and Yambao trying to redeem wounded egos. Vicencio is coming off almost eight months of a 12-month suspension, three months of which was affirmed by the CA restoring him to his post in the process. Yambao, who assumed Vicencio’s office during the latter’s suspension, is still smarting from a rejection by the Malabon electorate after failing in his first bid for the mayoralty in the last elections. No less than a presidential intervention, nay, quick action by the DILG which is "the court of origin," having recommended the suspension to the Office of the President, is seen to resolve the conflict. As it is, no one of the two is officials blinking. – Jerry Botial