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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Uproar in City Council as session ends
By Aurea A. Gerundio
DAVAO CITY -- The new majority in the City Council cut Councilor Victorio Advincula Sr. off in the middle of a statement when they moved for the session's adjournment right after a privilege speech of Vice Mayor Luis C. Bonguyan.
Bonguyan, in his speech, answered the charges leveled against him by a group of six councilors calling itself the "conscience bloc".
Advincula, a member of this conscience bloc, was responding to Bonguyan's speech, when he said: "I will say something that is not hearsay. I will say something personal."
Members of the new majority, however, did not let him finish, filing out of the session hall, leaving him in mid-harangue. The council session after all had already been adjourned.
Bonguyan, in a privileged speech, accused the bloc of six, namely, Advincula, Councilors Diosdado A. Mahipus Sr., Danilo C. Dayanghirang, Nilo G. Abellera, Paz C. Mata, and Nenita R. Orcullo of concocting lies against him and charging him with anomalies.
Bonguyan, as vice mayor, was earlier presiding over the session but stepped down to react to accusations hurled at him by Orcullo. New Speaker Pro-Tempore Jimmy G. Dureza took over in the meantime.
Taking the rostrum on privilege to lay out their accusations against Bonguyan were Councilors Dayanghirang, Mahipus, and Orcullo, with Abellera standing up over some issue on health and the Davao Medical Center and health, spending several minutes also explaining why he no longer wants to partake of the food being served in session, alluding to a "top official in the City Council" as being a kin of the one serving the food.
Councilor Pilar C. Braga also stood on privilege to remind the councilors of their role as well as explain why she prefers not to be aligned either with the "conscience bloc" or the "real conscience bloc", which the vice mayor's group calls itself.
Braga also took some minutes to castigate the councilors for their tendency not to listen to privilege speeches, singling out Councilor Bonifacio E. Militar, whom she was praising earlier on. She ended her speech with a prayer to God to guide the council and the councilors.
After the councilors gave their speeches, Dureza called on Bonguyan to deliver his.
Bonguyan's speech actually started with his reaction to Orcullo's speech delivered earlier where she said that she personally experienced being manipulated by the vice mayor. It was this issue that Bonguyan was reacting to that led to his being asked to relinquish the position of presiding officer for the day's session.
Orcullo claimed Bonguyan told her in the previous plan for a revamp that she should leave the council committee on cooperatives because there is no money in it.
An angry Bonguyan said Orcullo was "blatantly lying". Bonguyan also denied the accusations made earlier by the six councilors that he was involved in various secret deals in the council.
He chided the six councilors for claiming they never named him as the one they were accusing of corruption and yet starting off their press conference last week with announcements that they have a list of anomalies by the "top official of the City Council."
"There is no one else on top of the vice mayor in the city council," he said, and thus, it was obvious he was the one being alluded to.
Bonguyan said the six councilors are just desperate and cannot stand to lose their chairmanship of the committee they are handling, thus, the so-called "expose".
Soon after Bonguyan finished his speech, Councilor Jesus A. Zozobrado moved for the adjournment of the session that was seconded by other councilors.
Advincula protested the adjournment, and stood at the podium to deliver his reply to Bonguyan's speech.
In an interview with the media, Advincula said he respects the reorganization of the council.
However, he said, what he laments is that he was not given the chance to defend himself against Bonguyan's statement.
"If we reorganize, then we reorganize. Mamatay ba diay ko kung dili na ako ang majority floor leader (Will I die if I'm no longer the floor leader)? I am a very reserved person but I will not run from a fight," Advincula, who was still very agitated, said.
Advincula challenged Bonguyan to a debate over the local television to clarify many things.
But Bonguyan said he will not debate with Advincula saying he is not good at it compared to the councilor.
(August 10, 2005 issue)
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