Monday, August 27, 2007 Mayor’s inclusion in airport board pushed
CONGRESSMAN Raul del Mar assured that the amendment he introduced to the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) Charter neither dwells on expelling the Cebu governor from the board nor on stripping her of the power to recommend the private sector representatives.
He said this to dispel reports that he promised Lapu-Lapu City officials that the city mayor will take the governor’s place in the board, including the power to endorse who will represent the private sector.
“My principal amendment is to make the mayor of Lapu-Lapu City a member of the board. This is for better coordination between the airport authority and the City of Lapu-Lapu, in whose territory the airport is located,” said the Cebu City congressman.
“This is consistent with my proposed amendment to the CPA (Cebu Port Authority Charter) to make the city mayor of Cebu a CPA board member,” he added.
Del Mar said that when he was asked to comment on Mayor Arturo Radaza and the Lapu-Lapu City Council’s proposal to have the mayor replace the governor in the board, he merely told them that such would be discussed in the public hearing.
“I assured that these will be discussed, as well as other amendments expected to be proposed by the MCIAA board and others during the public hearing, because the discussion will not be limited to my proposed amendment. There might even be other Cebu congressmen who have their own proposals,” he said.
He said he wanted it emphasized that his recommendation is just to make the Lapu-Lapu City mayor an additional member of the MCIAA board.
“Never in my proposal did I seek to replace the governor with the (Lapu-Lapu) City mayor. The governor stays. Never was it proposed,” del Mar added.
On the transfer of the power to recommend the private sector representatives in the MCIAA board, del Mar said his amendment did not tackle this.
“But now that discussions have been started on this, I am not in favor of transferring the recommendatory power from the governor to the mayor of Lapu-Lapu City,” he said.
“But I see merit in eliminating altogether that requirement because it ties the hands of the President in appointing somebody who is more qualified and deserving but could not secure an endorsement from the governor or any local or national official for that matter,” he added.
Reps. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) and his father Pablo (Cebu, 2nd) have pledged to block del Mar’s supposed amendment removing the governor from the MCIAA board.
But del Mar said that was the Lapu-Lapu City Government’s proposal, not his.
He even said when he was asked to comment on the Lapu-Lapu City proposal, he said he would expect both congressmen to object, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia being Pablo John’s sister and Pablo’s daughter. (RHM)
