Caloocan dads score Malonzo

Caloocan City councilors yesterday scored losing congressional candidate and former mayor Reynaldo Malonzo for recommending his son "without consulting party members" to President Arroyo as replacement for Councilor Eduardo "Popoy" Rosca, who died last month.

In a statement, the councilors said Malonzo’s recommendation of his eldest son, Christoper, 24, "does not represent the sentiment of the whole party and the City Council."

Malonzo, as chairman of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats Caloocan Chapter, has the right to recommend a replacement. The former mayor believes he is right by the law and has threatened to run again for mayor allegedly because of the shabby treatment he is getting from incumbent City Mayor Enrico Echiverri.

"I have a copy of your resolution. Your gimmick is not stipulated there and please read the law first... Sana pababayaan ko na si mayor (Echiverri) at di na ako tatakbo (in the next local polls). Pero the way he treats me, I might seriously consider my options," Malonzo said when asked to air his side.

Echiverri remarked that Malonzo is "desperately clutching at straws".

A source said the city dads have contradicted Malonzo’s claim, saying the former mayor’s move has no legal basis and was not according to the dictates of the law.

In recommending his son, Malonzo allegedly failed to consult the other local officials, particularly the nine city councilors who are members of the local Lakas-CMD. The former mayor also allegedly did not consult the family of the late councilor.

In a letter to President Arroyo dated Feb. 22, Malonzo asked for the immediate appointment of his son to fill up the existing vacancy. The letter was allegedly the third he sent to Malacañang.

The STAR also gathered that the city councilors recently passed a resolution recommending the appointment of the late Rosca’s daughter, Kristen Joy Rosca, as her father’s successor. The council has furnished the Office of the President, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and other concerned offices with a copy of City Council Resolution 1655 series of 2005.

The resolution appealing for Mrs. Arroyo’s approval of Rosca’s daughter as her father’s successor was signed by Councilors Henry Cammayo, Dante Prado, Ricojudge Janvier Echiverri, Gualberto Bacolod, Macario Asistio III, Ernesto Cunanan, Divine Margallo, Alexander Aruelo, Maria Milagros Mercado (author), all members of Lakas and Mary Mitzi Cajayon and Nora Nubla, both of KNP.

The councilors said the resolution that since the reinstatement of local legislative councils in 1998, it has been an "unwritten rule" that the deceased Saggunian members are substituted with members of their own families.

Section 45 of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 provides that permanent vacancies in the Sangguniang Panlunsod of highly urbanized cities and independent component cities shall be filled by appointment by the President through the Executive Secretary.