APART from the new set of elected officials that will assume office at noon of June 30, 2019, the legislative department of the Cebu Provincial Government will also welcome a new ex-officio member.
Samboan town Councilor Irving Gamallo will replace incumbent Philippine Councilors League (PCL) Cebu Chapter president Earl Tidy Oyas as acting president and ex-officio member of the Provincial Board (PB).
The development came after Oyas was elected vice mayor of Catmon town in the May 13 elections.
In an interview Friday, June 7, lawyer Pulchra Marie Acevedo, Sangguniang Panlalawigan secretary, said Gamallo will sit as ex-officio member until August, or until the PCL elects its new set of officers.
“He will sit in the interim waiting for the elections of the PCL come August,” she said.
Gamallo is the incumbent auditor of the PCL, but he will assume the presidency since the vice president, secretary and treasurer were already serving their last terms as councilors.
He will join the meeting with all newly elected members of the PB called by incoming vice governor and outgoing Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III on Monday, June 10, to discuss house rules and committee chairmanships.
Gamallo will also join his new colleagues at the PB in their inaugural session on Monday, July 1.
First-time PB members are John Ismael Borgonia (third district), Kerrie Keane Shimura (fourth district), Andrei Duterte (fifth district) and Glenn Anthony Soco (sixth district).
Reelected PB members were Yolanda Daan and Raul Bacaltos (first district), Edsel Galeos and Jose Mari Salvador (second district), Victoria “Tata” Corominas-Toribio (third district), Horacio Paul Franco (fourth district), Miguel Antonio Magpale (fifth district), Thadeo Jovito Ouano (sixth district), and Jerome Christian Librando and Christopher Baricuatro (seventh district).
But it is yet to be determined whether or not, the new ex-officio member will be an ally of Davide or the incoming administration of governor-elect and outgoing Third District Rep. Gwendolyn “Gwen” Garcia.