Monday, December 24, 2007 Mandaue officials ask Nerry to convert status of city college
EXCEPT for one councilor who abstained, the opposition-dominated Mandaue City Council voted to approve a resolution asking Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz to sponsor a bill that will convert the city college into a state school.
Although they are free to vote for or against the resolution, an opposition councilor admitted he was slighted by one partymate’s stand on the matter.
Councilor Victor Biaño proposed a resolution requesting Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district) to sponsor a bill converting Mandaue City College (MCC) to Mandaue City State College.
But some councilors did not agree so the presiding officer, Councilor Procopio Villanueva, divided the house. Opposition councilors prevailed over two lawmakers who opposed the resolution.
Earlier, the council revealed that the ordinance creating MCC in 2005 was published in the newspaper only last month, or two years after it was approved.
But even if the ordinance was already published and therefore in effect already, City Administrator Briccio Boholst said school officials who were appointed by the previous administration do not have the personality to hold such positions.
Among other things, the proponent of the resolution hopes to keep the school operations and officials from being affected by politics and changes in the city’s political leadership.
No subsidy
The resolution further stated that with the number of students increasing from 700 since the school opened to 1,500 this school year, the school has not availed itself of the P5 million annual subsidy from the City Government since 2005.
This supports the need for the school to be funded by the National Government through a bill to be filed in the Lower House and a counterpart bill in the Senate.
Biaño’s resolution, however, had to go through a voting because two administration councilors did not agree to approve the measure.
Opposition councilors prevailed over two administration councilors, with opposition councilor Jefferson Ceniza abstaining.
Ceniza abstained because he believes that MCC’s internal problems need to be resolved before having it converted into a state college.
One of the problems identified is Dr. Paulus Cañete’s refusal to recognize Dr. Susana Cabahug as the designated school caretaker. Cañete was designated president by the previous administration while Cabahug was appointed by the present administration.
Cañete earlier sought the court’s intervention to prevent Cabahug from taking his place.
After the session, Councilor Emil Rosal said that Ceniza should have consulted them first and informed them of his move. He admitted they were surprised by Ceniza’s stand. (OCP)
