Steel barricades, vigil at Capitol

THE stage is set for high political drama in the Cebu Capitol building.

Steel guard rails were positioned at the entrance gate until late last night to prevent easy entry. In the afternoon, visitors were asked to show their IDs before entering, including news reporters who frequent the Capitol daily.

Two buses arrived at 9 a.m. with barangay health workers in green and yellow shirts, the campaign colors of the One Cebu Party, from different towns.

A third bus arrived at 3 p.m.

“Many called up manifesting their support ug tinood ba. Some groups tonight will hold vigil,” said Capitol consultant Rory John Sepulveda.

“They are also making sure that if there are groups, dili nimo malikayan gyud nga ma-politika dayon ni nga issue nga matarong lang nga magpabilin malinawon, peaceful, orderly,” he added.

The women went straight to the social hall and sat on the floor, waiting. Leni Bagol, president of the BHWs in the province, said they were about 1,000 of them there.

Asteria Cabanero, a barangay health worker from Talisay City, was part of the growd that showed up at 10:50 a.m.

“We were just told by our group president to come here. We don’t know why,” she told Cebu Daily News.

Some said they were hoping to receive a Christmas bonus from the provincial government but none was given. They were instead fed packed lunches as they sat on the floor of the Capitol social hall.

Past 2 p.m., the women started to pray the rosary.

Sepulveda said the suspension would likely stem from a ruling of the Office of the President on the 2010 usurpation of authority charges filed by the late Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez.

“We  are preparing for anything. We heard about the suspension order against the governor a long time ago,” Sepulveda told reporters.

“The only case that possibly entails a suspension is the administrative one before the Office of the President. That’s the only case. Lets wait and see,” Sepulveda said.

He said Garcia was “out of town,” attending to a scheduled event and would  return to work soon.

“I talked with the governor. She really just need to attend to something. She said ‘Let them do their worst and we will do our best’,” Sepulveda said.

“Gigi” Sanchez-Zaballero said a suspension order would mean justice for her father.

“My father will be vindicated. He was fighting for a cause. He was for separation of power between the legislative and the executive. He was for transparency and acountability too,” Zaballero told CDN.

Sanchez earlier raised three issues against Garcia : tyranny, gross abuse of power and misuse of government funds.

He claimed that the governor held “hostage” his share of the Legislative Assistance Fund (LAF), which was earmarked for chosen barangays in his district, froze the renewal of work contracts of his 57 employees and signed  multi-million-peso contracts  without approval of the PB.

The  governor sought the dismissal of the case saying Zaballero “cannot inherit” the right to pursue the complaint. The case, however, continued.