Baguio pols coveting vacant post quarrel

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – In what could be a microcosm of politics on a national scale, local members of the Nacionalista Party (NP), factions of the Liberal Party (LP) and city officials have been quarrelling over the vacancy opened up by the May 4 death of Vice Mayor Daniel Fariñas.

The city’s top councilor, Edison Bilog of LP, assumed Fariñas’ post on May 4, leaving a vacancy in the 12-member council.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said it was Bilog who created a vacancy, citing the government’s rules on succession.

At the start of the week, Bilog said LP members met and decided to nominate businessman Mark Go, the LP city chair who ran and lost for Baguio representative in the 2013 elections.

Section 45 of the 1991 Local Government Code (Republic Act No. 7160), which addresses permanent vacancies in the Sanggunian (council), states: “The appointee shall come from the same political party as that of the Sanggunian member who caused the vacancy and shall serve the unexpired term of the vacant office.”

But on May 14, Mayor Mauricio Domogan circulated a May 5 resolution signed by majority of the council members, which nominated Fariñas’ widow, barangay chair Lillia Fariñas of Upper Quezon Hill village, to fill up the seat.

Domogan said the vacancy was created by Fariñas’ death. The Fariñas couple are NP members.

On Friday, another set of LP members scheduled a meeting to nominate another LP member for the post vacated by Bilog, asserting that it was Bilog who created a vacancy and not the lowest ranked councilor.

John Castañeda, DILG Cordillera director, said the succession rules provided by the code indicated that Fariñas’ death opened a vacancy for vice mayor, which Bilog assumed by succession, being the councilor who received the most votes in the 2013 elections.

“By succeeding [the late vice mayor], the No. 1 councilor creates the vacancy in the local Sanggunian,” Castañeda said.

Bilog said Go’s nomination had been sent to Malacañang for President Aquino’s approval.

On May 14, Domogan’s office transmitted to Malacañang the resolution that endorsed Fariñas’ widow as its nominee. Reports from Kimberlie Quitasol, Johanna Marie Buenaobra and Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon