Cebu dad’s death revives question on filling up City Council vacancies

The death of Cebu City Councilor Eleno Abellana yesterday is expected to revive questions regarding the manner in which city council vacancies are filled. His death has now left two vacancies in the council, the first being left by Firmo Dayao when he resigned last year.

The issue is expected to be thorny, the questions pointed, considering that the two vacancies were left by men belonging to opposing parties. Dayao was a member of the opposition Kusug while Abellana belonged to the ruling BOPK. Both parties have had conflicting interpretations as to how the Local Government Code provides for the choice of a replacement.

After Dayao resigned, Kusug pushed a same-party-same-replacement interpretation based on how it understood Section 45 (b) of the Local Government Code. That section provides that "the appointee shall come from the same political party as that of the Sanggunian member who caused the vacancy. But BOPK Councilor Gerardo Carillo interpreted the same provision to mean that the political party from whom the last councilor caused the vacancy in the Sanggunian shall have the right to recommend his nominee to the President for appointment.

Carillo had argued that when a councilor causes a vacancy in the city council, either through resignation or death, the next ranking councilor automatically fills up the seat. The subsequent vacancies are then filled up by other Sanggunian members based on rankings. If Carillo’s arguments hold, the BOPK earns the right to recommend a replacement for Dayao because at the time of Dayao’s resignation, Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem, who ranked eighth next to Dayao, had to be elevated automatically to seventh, consequently causing the eighth to be vacant. — Freeman News Service