Thursday, April 12, 2007 Mandaue councilors fail to hold session for lack of quorum
IT would have been the first session of the Mandaue City Council with a new presiding officer, but the number of councilors present failed to meet the quorum last Tuesday afternoon.
Only four members were present, including the acting presiding officer.
Councilor Carlo Pontico Fortuna, the majority floor leader, was acting presiding officer with the absence of Acting Vice Mayor Jonas Cortes.
Cortes was at the regional office of the Commission on Elections that afternoon for a hearing on his petition to declare a fellow mayoral hopeful as a nuisance candidate.
Around 2:30 p.m., Fortuna started the session but when the roll was called, only Councilors Rosita Benabaye and Jovita Tuela Ouano were present.
Fortuna called a 10-minute recess then Councilor Wenceslao Gakit arrived. After a second roll call, no quorum was declared and the session was adjourned at close to 3 p.m.
The council needs at least seven members present, including the presiding officer, to have a quorum.
Fortuna said in an interview yesterday that as he left City Hall, Councilor Elmer Cabahug arrived. Fortuna said he didn’t expect not having quorum.
“Pirmi man gud present (They are always present),” he said.
Fortuna and Gakit, who are running for vice mayor and provincial board member respectively, said they skipped campaigning for the session.
Among the items they were supposed discuss was a request for an establishment to be endorsed as an economic zone.
Another was a proposed resolution charging some P230,000 worth of assistance to fire victims in Barangay Casuntingan to the year’s current account. (AAG)
