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Saturday, March 01, 2003
Tomas blames Joy for poll pay delay
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
CEBU -- Mayor Tomas Osmeņa accused Cebu City Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera Friday of "sitting on" the request of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the honorarium of canvassers who served during the July 15 barangay and youth elections.
"Why don't you ask Mayor Pesquera?" the mayor told reporters, after saying he already referred the matter to the City Council.
Although he has criticized the City Council for questioning recent transactions and accused them of encroaching on executive powers, it was the first time he publicly singled out Pesquera, who heads the council committee on budget and finance.
Pesquera, the majority floor leader, has had enough.
"I'm mad. Nasobrahan na siya. It's no longer a joke. I'm not happy (with his statements)," Pesquera said in a phone interview.
"I'm mad. I'm very, very mad. You put that in your paper," she added.
Pesquera, a CPA-lawyer who is serving her second term in the City Council, said she already wrote a letter to Osmeņa last July 9, informing him of Comelec's request for local government units to defray expenses for the synchronized elections.
The delay, she said, is not caused by the inaction of the City Council, but by the local Comelec's failure to submit to them a clarification on who is supposed to pay the honorarium.
Former Association of Barangay Councils president Jose Navarro had claimed that the Department of Budget and Management already took 10 percent of the barangays' Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share for last year's elections.
As a result, the City Council had to verify if the City still had to appropriate some funds for the same purpose.
In Friday's press conference, Osmeņa, informed that Pesquera questioned the appropriation, said the councilor "lacks transparency."
"The teachers are not paid because of Mayor Pesquera," he also said.
For her part, Pesquera said that even if the mayor received the wrong information, he should have checked with her before issuing such statements.
"Nangutana unta siya nako. I will not just sit on it," an angry Pesquera said.
In the City Council's regular session last Aug. 28, Pesquera sponsored the resolution appropriating P540,850 to pay the teachers and other government workers who served during the July 15 synchronized elections.
But due to Navarro's apprehensions of double payment, she agreed to refer it to the committee on laws and the committee on budget and finance, to check how many barangays complied with the Comelec directive, so the City Government will only release the amount needed.
Request denied?
She recalled that City Election Officer Simaco Labata, who attended a meeting with the committee on laws, agreed to send a letter to Comelec Manila to clarify whether the City or the barangay is supposed to foot the bill for the expenses.
Labata, in a separate interview, said he already endorsed the City Council's resolution to Comelec 7 Director Juan Peque to refer it Comelec Manila.
As to the 10 percent taken from the barangays' IRA share that went to Comelec, Labata said that went mostly to the purchase of election paraphernalia and the honorarium of the teachers who served as election tellers.
"Why did the other cities pay (the board of canvassers)? Nganong diri gi-question man? In effect, they are denying our request," he pointed out.
Complain
He lamented that for the past months, many of the teachers have gone to him to complain that they have not received their pay.
Osmeņa, for his part, asked Pesquera to submit to him a report on the matter.
"I do not even get the courtesy of knowing she didn't entertain it," he said.
If Pesquera was against the appropriation, she should have opposed it during the City Council session instead of not acting on it, he said.
This is the fourth issue on which Osmeņa and Pesquera have taken different viewpoints, but yesterday was the first time the mayor publicly lashed out at the councilor, who belongs to his party.
Earlier, Pesquera, who was among the members of the City Council that questioned Osmeņa's decision to release P32 million to the barangays without their concurrence, lost her chairmanship of the Personnel Selection Board (PSB).
Representative
The mayor surprised Pesquera, whom he had appointed as his representative to the PSB, with a memorandum informing the board that no meeting shall take place without his presence.
Although Pesquera continues to sit as PSB member, as head of the committee on labor and employment, Osmeņa announced he will "set the tone" and stressed that no positions in City Hall will be filled unless he approves it.
Pesquera did not question the mayor's move but continued, as with other members of the City Council, to question the P20.5-million dump trucks deal and Osmeņa's decision to allow Talisay City to use the Inayawan sanitary landfill without seeking the council's approval.
Amid talks of a possible rift within the Bando Osmeņa-Pundok Kauswagan, Pesquera only answered the issues but did not react to the mayor's statements, until Friday. Sun.Star Cebu |
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