WHEN Cebu City Vice Mayor Mike Rama at a City Hall press-con Tuesday (Aug. 27) questioned Mayor Edgar Labella’s creation of a Cebu City Sinulog Govering Board (CCSGB) to “oversee, review and approve” all actions of Sinulog Foundation, Inc. Rama dwelt mainly on:
[1] Sinulog Foundaiton Inc.’s (SFI) “loss of autonomy,” its fate (“what will happen to SFI?”), and undefined functions (“who’ll be in charge of marketing?”);
[2] What the “real intention” of the mayor must be in creating the CCSGB, with his desire to know tinged with a sense of being diminished (“maybe they are thinking they can do better than us”);
[3] The CCSGB being an “added layer of bureaucracy”;
[4] The mayor having shut him out in deciding on changes on how to manage Sinulog.
The SFI has been organizing and running the annual festival for the last 35 years, more than a dozen of which were led by VM Rama. Mike is proud to be the “Sinulog” expert in Partido Barug that now controls City Hall.
Autonomy? Or independence?
While VM Rama talked of lost “autonomy,” he also “worried” over lost “independence” (because of “the direct authority of the CCSGB, headed by Labella, over the foundation”). Losing autonomy means SFI is part of the Cebu City Government but given a lot of elbow room to do its job. Losing independence means it wasn’t a part of the City Government but now it is.
Mayor Labella, in creating the CCSGB by executive order, must think SFI is one of the entities controlled by City Hall. And the arguments that fly in the current debate on the disputed EO assume that the mayor, Labella, is lawfully authorized to issue the order, assuming in turn that SFI is a creation of the City and is controlled by it.
The SFI is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC 132755 dated July 25, 1984). SFI’s official website/Facebook page lists the foundation as “an NGO” or non-government organization.
Incorporators, directors
Its board of incorporators included three politicians (Florentino Solon, Ronald Duterte and Ramon Durano III) but all the rest were private citizens: Paterno LuYm Sr., Esteban Go, Go Sing King, Francisco Benedicto, Augusto Go, Joseph Gaisano, Lim Liu, Segundo Go, Anos Fonacier, Jose Garcia, Amando Martinez Jr., and Jose Larrazabal – A-listers in Cebu’s private society.
So have the SFI’s directors been mostly VIPs through the years. The last group, which managed the January 2019 Sinulog festival, comprised of private citizens, except for politicians Tomas Osmeña as chairman of the board and overall Sinulog chairman, and Mike Rama, as board member. Then councilors David Tumulak, Margarita Osmena and Sisenio Andales served as execom members but they were appointees and served at the SFI board’s bidding. The president, Pericles Dakay, and SFI’s secretary, treasurer and auditor were also private citizens.
Sense of proprietary power
The City Hall officials must feel a sense of proprietary power over the festival because (a) it initiates and organizes the annual activity; and (b) it contributes “P25 million” and taps its resources to it. Sinulog is Cebu City and Cebu City is Sinulog. They must think that they control Sinulog and can change the management procedure anytime.
And the public officials have loved joining the private group through the decades because of the enormous goodwill it draws from voters who are mostly Catholics and Santo Niño devotees. Being seen as organizer and leader of the celebration is public exposure that politicians will find hard to reject.
Reasons for control
But can the City Government legally control SFI, a private non-profit, an NGO? The fact is, whether authorized by law or not, the City has been doing so for almost four decades already.
Largely because SFI is under the thumb of the mayor or, like this year for the 2020 festival, the vice mayor who sits as chairman of the board and overall Sinulog chairman.
But why the controversy and furor? Because this time the mayor and the vice mayor disagree on who and how the Sinulog 2020 will be managed. And because this is the first occasion that the City Government’s “meddling” in the private SFI is reduced to writing, in the mayor’s executive order no less.
Another motive
Apparently, this is about handling public funds. The mayor wants “checks and balances and transparency.” But can the present SFI not set up additional safeguards by itself? It is also about managing the mammoth activity. The mayor wants “easier coordination.” But can that not be done by changing SFI structure and policy procedures? By SFI itself, with some, ah, guidance from City Hall.
What must bug Mike Rama and his supporters is that there might be another motive, undisclosed and may not be disclosed for now, lurking in the City’s corridor of power.