REELECTED Vice Gov. Hilario Davide III visited Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia in her office at the Cebu Provincial Capitol on Monday, May 23, 2022, to congratulate her on her successful reelection bid in the May 9 elections.
During the meeting, Davide and Garcia agreed to work together on various projects and programs of the Capitol.
Garcia ran under the One Cebu Party, while Davide ran under the Liberal Party.
Both their running mates were defeated, extending the Garcia-Davide partnership in the Capiol for a second term.
Garcia garnered 1,478,436 votes, while former tourism secretary Joseph Felix Mari “Ace” Durano, Davide’s running mate, got 341,455 votes.
Davide, meanwhile, garnered 788,081 votes, while Dr. Maria Theresa “Tess” Villaluz-Heyrosa, running mate of Garcia, got 716,480 votes.
Garcia had earlier announced that political affiliation is not a hindrance to giving service to the Cebuanos, especially in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Davide served as Cebu governor for six years, 2013-2019, after Garcia’s three terms as governor that began in 2004 ended in 2013. Garcia was elected governor for a fourth time in 2019.
When Davide became vice governor to Garcia in 2019, the Provincial Board ruled by Garcia’s allies changed the house rules to clip the vice governor’s powers.
Davide was prohibited from taking part in deliberations and from sponsoring legislative measures, and limited to presiding over the session and voting only in the case of a tie during deliberation of the business at hand.
Before the rule change, from the seventh to the 14th Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP), the house rules had allowed the vice governor to take part in discussions, hold committee chairmanships and author resolutions and ordinances.
But in July 2019, Davide and his allies in the Provincial Board did not get committee chairmanships.
In contrast, Davide’s predecessor, former vice governor Agnes Magpale, had the second highest number of legislative measures among members of the 14th SP with 100 committee reports, close to 200 resolutions and eight approved ordinances. Magpale also chaired the tourism committee.
On the campaign trail last March, Garcia said that during Davide’s six-year administration, the province had been neglected, an allegation Davide merely laughed off. (ANV, TPT)