Thursday, June 19, 2008
Nullify bizman’s naming to MCWD board, Gwen asks
DESPITE the earlier dismissal of two suits questioning Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s authority to appoint representatives to the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) Board, the Provincial Government is still at it.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday filed a complaint before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Civil Division asking the court to declare null Osmeña’s appointment of businessman Joel Mari Yu to the board.
Garcia stressed that it is the Capitol, not City Hall, that may appoint representatives to the MCWD, citing the Provincial Water Utilities Act of 1973.
She wants the court to issue an injunctive writ that will stop Yu from taking over the post left vacant by Cordova Mayor Adelino Sitoy.
Sitoy, who sat from December 2006 to May 2007, had been a “consensus choice” between Garcia and Osmeña.
He, together with Leo Pacaña, was given a seat to prevent a vacuum while the issue of who between City Hall and the Capitol has the authority to appoint remained under contention before the RTC.
Based on the governor’s latest suit, Osmeña supposedly appointed Yu unilaterally as Sitoy’s replacement beginning sometime in February of this year.
The Capitol tried to block the proceeding by writing a letter that was subsequently referred to the MCWD’s legal department but Osmeña appointed Yu anyway.
“(The) act of Osmeña and the appointment of Yu as a member of the Board of Directors of MCWD is clearly illegal, null and void,” the suit said.
It also stated that Section 3(b) of the statute says the mayor is the appointing authority if more than seventy-five percent of the total active water service connections of a local water district are within the boundary of that city.
“Otherwise, the appointing authority shall be the governor of the province within which the district is located,” the statute continues.
According to Garcia’s suit, only 61.28 percent of MCWD’s active water service connections are from the city as of 2006.
The Capitol, through former Cebu governor Pablo Garcia, was the first to make a claim over the right to appointment MCWD representatives in 2002.
Last year, City Hall filed a similar suit, also seeking explanation.
The court dismissed the incident last May 20, saying a suit for declaratory relief is not the proper remedy. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 19, 2008 issue)
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