With two Provincial Board (PB) members joining the Liberal Party (LP) fold over the weekend, a new majority is shaping up in the provincial legislature in time for next month’s budget deliberations.
Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, PB minority leader Arleigh Sitoy and board member Thadeo Ouano said as much as they vowed to closely examine next month’s budget proposal by Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
“As expected with the budget proposal coming, committee chairmanship may be changed and questions and clarifications on the budget will be also be expected,” Ouano said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Last week, PB members Peter Calderon and Wilfredo Caminero were sworn into the LP fold in the office of newly designated Interior and Local Governments Secretary Mar Roxas.
Ouano also joined the LP during a recent visit by President Benigno Aquino III in Danao City where the alliance between the administration LP party and the Bakud party was forged.
Magpale will run with Cebu LP gubernatorial candidate Hilario “Junjun” Davide III in next year’s elections against the One Cebu tandem of Rep. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district and former Danao City vice mayor Ramon “Boboy” Durano.
At the PB, the presence of the new majority will be signaled with the resignation of Sitoy as minority floor leader.
Sitoy said he will deliver a privilege speech at the PB session this afternoon after which he will announce his resignation.
“I will resign as minority floor leader, which means that I will already belong to the new majority, who will then become effective fiscalizers in the provincial government of Cebu,” he said.
Comfortable majority
Ouano said that he will leave it to Vice Governor Magpale to come up with committee changes as there have been no formal talks about these developments in the Board yet.
With Calderon joining the LP, Ouano said it had yet to be known if Calderon will still remain as majority floor leader.
But both Ouano and Magpale acknowledged that their numbers don’t constitute a comfortable majority.
Ouano said the LP bloc in the board still cannot overturn the governor’s veto because they are a simple majority.
A veto can only be overturned by a two-thirds majority vote or 11 out of 15 board members excluding the vice-governor.
Despite this, Ouano said the LP bloc will look at the proposed 2013 budget closely.
He cited as an example the vacant positions in various Capitol offices that were left vacant even if they were budgeted in the 2012 annual appropriations.
‘Lines will be drawn’
Ouano recalled Caminero’s appeal to fill up vacant slots in the Provincial Agriculturist’s Office.
“In next month’s budget deliberations, we’ll look at it more closely,” Ouano said.
Sitoy said while all PB members are principle-centered, lines will be drawn during the budget deliberations.
“This time, consideration of the budget in other matters will be alliance-based, which may not reflect the governor’s position,” he said.
Magpale said the LP bloc won’t be obstructionist and but will be “a reasonable opposition.”
Being a reasonable opposition, Magpale said, means making decisions “not based on party lines.”
She cited the administrative cases filed by the Capitol against Daanbantayan Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot as an example.
“The PB exoneration of Loot wasn’t done on party lines,” Magpale said.
Voting process
The entry of Caminero, Ouano and Calderon into the LP brought in four more votes for the LP if party lines will be drawn during the voting process.
Though considered non-partisan Caminero’s son and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) president Alladin Caminero is expected to vote alongside his father.
The LP bloc in the Provincial Board now consists of Caminero, Calderon of Cebu’s second district; Miguel Antonio Magpale and Jude Sybico of Cebu’s 5th district and Arleigh Sitoy and Thadeo Ouano of Cebu’s 6th district.
Also included were the younger Caminero, the SK representative to the board and Carmen Ivy Durano-Mecca of the Councilor’s League.
The remaining One Cebu members at the board consist of PB members Alex Binghay and Ian Zambo of Cebu’s 3rd district and Sun Shimura and Joven Mondigo Jr. of Cebu’s 4th district.
The local Alayon Party that’s aligned with One Cebu has two members in Julian Daan and Sergio Restauro of Cebu’s 1st district.
PB Member Ribomaphil “Joeyboy” Holganza, Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Federation president, is considered independent though he won the federation chairmanship with Governor Garcia’s backing. /Dale G. Israel and Carmel Loise Matus