Commotion mars Council session

DUMAGUETE CITY — The usually peaceful regular session of the City Council was briefly marred by an unexpected commotion Wednesday that sparked emotions and raised voices among officials at recess time.

Around 2:30 p.m., when Vice Mayor Woodrow Maquiling, Sr. called for a recess, the uproar started after radio block time anchor/reporter Edmund Sestoso became edgy when Police Officer 1 Francis Oliver Maata of the City Police approached him with a Barangay Protection Order.

The BPO was intended, among other things, to bar Sestoso from coming near Councilor Lilani Ramon, with whom he has an ongoing rift over a domestic-related complaint involving the reporter.

Sestoso said he was surprised that the policeman served him a BPO, which he had no knowledge of until it was shown to him. He said it was human instinct that made him jittery to holler at the policeman by saying he could not be arrested without due cause.

Maquiling, meanwhile, lamented the manner by which the BPO was served by the policeman, aided by a police auxiliary member, noting that there was no prior coordination with him or even the secretariat.

Maquiling said he could not help but berate the policeman for barging in and disrupting the session, even though it was on recess, as if there were "criminals" in the legislative hall.

He also later told reporters in an irate voice that the City Council is open to everyone and nobody can be barred from entering its premises unless with probable cause and not for personal gains.

When interviewed later, Maata said he and his companion, police auxiliary Joseph Adalim, both assigned to the Quick Response Team had just at the station when they got a call asking for police assistance at the session hall.

Maata said the caller was unidentified but the radio operator who took the call informed them to proceed to the City Hall although they had no idea what was awaiting them there.

Upon arriving at the session hall, Maata told reporters Councilor Lilani Ramon met him and gave him a copy of the BPO to be served against Sestoso. He further said the councilor wanted Sestoso be removed from the session hall. When inside the session, Maata said Ramon pointed at Sestoso, prompting him to approach the newsman and show the BPO.

After the commotion died down, Sestoso told his media colleagues that the BPO presented by Ramon to the police was "questionable" because he did not have an intimate relationship, as prescribed by law, with the complainant.

Earlier, Ramon had filed for a BPO against Sestoso, claiming the man had threatened her on air in his regular block time program. The BPO was granted and signed by Chakko Sagarbarria, village chair of Calindagan and son of Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria. Later that day, however, Chakko recalled the BPO after finding some questions on its legalities.

Maquiling, for his part, also questioned the legitimacy of the BPO noting the same observation as Sestoso's that this can only be applied when there is an "intimate" relationship between the parties involved.

The vice mayor was frustrated over the disturbance at the session, with the now publicly perceived to be a widening tiff between Sestoso and Ramon. He added that the City Police must be briefed on protocol and not to be drawn into participating in a "personal vendetta."  (FREEMAN)