Cebu mayors’ league split, has 2 sets of officers

CEBU — In an unprecedented development, the Cebu mayors’ league broke apart the other day, split right down the middle into two factions that each elected a different set of officers.

The break-up was precipitated by an objection by Sam—boan Mayor Peter John Calderon of Alayon to allow Carcar Vice Mayor Severino Escobido of Lakas to vote on behalf of Mayor Mario Patricio Barcenas who was absent.

Calderon said Section 2 of Article 3 of the constitution and by-laws of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Cebu chapter expressly prohibits a mere representative of a mayor to vote on his behalf in the election of officers of the league.

Section 2 of Article 3 reads: "Every municipality shall be represented in the league by the municipal mayor or, in his absence, by the vice mayor or a Sangguniang Bayan member duly elected by the members thereof who shall attend all meetings and participate in the deliberations of the league. However, the mayor’s (representative) will not be allowed to vote in the elections for officers of the league."

Allowing or disallowing Escobido to vote on behalf of Barcenas was a crucial issue because both Alayon and Lakas were evenly split with 21 member-mayors each.

Of the 47 town mayors in the province, only 43 were present — or 44 if Escobido was counted as Barcenas’ representative.

If Escobido was excluded, the numbers would go 21 for Alayon and 22 for Lakas. But the incumbent league president, Bogo Mayor Celestino Martinez III of Lakas, was disallowed to vote under the rules, being the presiding officer.

Without Martinez, the numbers would then be split evenly at 21 each for Alayon and Lakas. Thus, the battle was for whether Escobido could vote for Barcenas or not.

But while Calderon insisted that Escobido could not do so under the league’s constitution and by-laws, Martinez argued that the league has adopted, as a supplemental rule, the guidelines of the national chapter that allows a mayor’s designate to vote.

Amid protests by Calderon, the issue was put to a vote and, according to the already pre-ordained numbers, Lakas got its way with 22 votes, with Escobido taking part in the voting.

The manner of conducting the vote for officers, whether by open balloting as proposed by Lakas or in secret as pushed by Alayon, was itself put to a vote, and still with the same results, with all 22 Lakas votes going for an open ballot and the 21 Alayon votes going for a secret vote.

With the outcome apparently clear from these two exercises, all Alayon mayors then walked out of the session hall as the nominations started, and proceeded to the office of Vice Gov. John Gregory Osmeña.

Aside from Carcar Mayor Barcenas, three other mayors were also absent, but their presence would have hardly mattered since it would still result in an even split.

Absent were Mayors Ferdinand Chiong of Naga, Marlo Canada of Minglanilla and Avelino Canoy of San Fernando. Chiong and Canada belong to Alayon, while Canoy is with Lakas.

Had all three been present, it would still have resulted in a 23-23 split, since Martinez is not allowed to vote.

The Lakas mayors who stayed behind proceeded with the election and re-elected Martinez as league president.

Martinez, in turn, appointed the rest of the officers, from vice president down to the board of directors.

From Osmeña’s office, the Alayon mayors moved to the Grand Convention Center and there conducted their own elections for a breakaway set of league officers.

Elected president of the breakaway league was Malabuyoc Mayor Lito Narciso Creus, who originally intended to contest the position against Martinez.

Creus said Lakas had clearly railroaded the election, leaving Alayon with no choice but to walk out.

"History repeats itself. This is just like the 1998 LMP elections. We just have our own party in this case. We have the numbers, only some of our mayors are not here," Creus said.

But it was the Lakas officers headed by Martinez who were immediately proclaimed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s provincial director, Rafael Lozada.

Lozada refused to comment on the legality of Alayon electing another set of officers.

Martinez later told reporters he would try to reconcile with Creus and the Alayon mayors.

"This happened before. I would just have to talk with them again. But having another LMP group is too remote. That’s plainly not possible. They saw that there was the eventuality that I would be elected, that was why they walked out," Martinez said.

He said that if the situation had been the other way around, the Lakas mayors would have stayed.

After the proclamation, the Lakas mayors, led by Martinez, met with Gov. Pablo Garcia who said Martinez’s performance in the league has been vindicated. — Freeman News Service