Friday, June 15, 2007 Why did City ‘separate’ from province?
CEBU City Vice Mayor Michael Rama has ordered his office staff to conduct “exhaustive research” on why Cebu City residents can no longer vote for the governor and other provincial officials.
He said he gave the order following Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s proposal to have the Cebu City Charter amended so that residents of the city can join the process of electing the governor again.
Rama’s grandfather, Vicente, authored the charter, signed into law as Commonwealth Act 58 by then president Manuel L. Quezon on Oct. 20, 1935.
Rama said something might have been changed in the Local Government Code and as a result, Cebu City’s voters were no longer required to vote for the governor.
He said Cebu City might have been a victim of a congressional act that did not require a plebiscite or public hearings.
“We are looking at personalities who, in one way or the other, were the original culprits,” he said, without mentioning names. Commonwealth Act 58 has been amended several times.
The copy that the Cebu City Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) has is Republic Act No. 3857, which was approved in 1964. City SP Secretary Estrella de los Reyes could not say if there were other amendments introduced after that.
Section 25 of the said law, though, mentioned what Rama might have been looking for.
“The qualified voters of the City of Cebu shall be entitled to vote in the election of the provincial governor, the provincial vice governor and the members of the Provincial Board of Cebu, and, for this purpose, the city shall continue to form part of the province,” it stated.
In proposing that Cebu City be made part of the Province, Osmeña said it would have the same status as Mandaue City, whose residents are allowed to vote for governor without necessarily affecting the City’s income.
But Rama said Cebu City residents used to have the right to choose the Cebu governor, and he wanted that restored.
As the conflict brews, Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south district) said he will meet with Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal today to request him to mediate in the conflict between Osmeña and Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
The Capitol recently demanded that the City Government “immediately refrain from exercising acts of ownership and administration over the Fuente Osmeña circle.”
Osmeña, however, said it would take a court order for the Capitol to have its way.
A radio dyLA report yesterday quoted him as saying that he will have policemen guard the rotunda to keep Capitol officials off the property. (RHM)
