Councilors object to politicking insinuation

MANDAUE City opposition councilors clarified they were not playing politics and they were not trying to block projects in the city.

Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna revealed that five councilors inhibited from giving Mayor Luigi Quisumbing authority to take legal action over a controversial 3.5 hectare lot in Barangay Looc.

“We did not block anything; we don’t have any intention to do that,” said Councilor Carmelino “Jun” del Mar. “Whatever it is that the City wants to do, as long as we believe that it is for the benefit of the majority, we will be more than willing to toe the line. But in that situation, I apologize, but we did the right thing. We just followed Vice Mayor Carlo’s advice.”

Del Mar clarified that the opposition merely wanted the issue set aside because they have not studied the matter. The Council only read the report during the session proper and it was even under the “other matters” and was not included in the regular agenda.

The report being referred to was the joint report from the committee on laws, headed by Councilor Nilo “Olin” Seno, and Del Mar’s committee on assets and properties.

The joint report was based on the legal opinion of the Mandaue City Legal Office, which recommended the nullification of the City’s contract selling 3.5 hectares of land to E.C. Ouano Development and Management Corp. (Ecodemcor) for lack of documents.

The sale of the lot happened during the administration of now Rep. Jonas Cortes (Cebu, 6th district). It became controversial after it was found that the lot was sold for only P50 per square meter.

Cortes is trying to return to Mandaue’s mayoral seat against incumbent Luigi Quisumbing. The two were allies during the 2016 elections.

“I didn’t realize that the report was a joint one,” said del Mar in Bisaya. He said that he and his four fellow councilors wanted to defer the report for further study but it was Fortuna who suggested that they just inhibit—so they did. No politics there. FMDD

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