HOLDOVER COUNCILORS. Councilors Franklyn Ong and Jessica Resch, representing barangay and youth sectors, are staying in the Cebu City Council after the elections and beyond June 30.
Ong hasn't lost his seat although he ran for vice mayor against Barug's Raymond Alvin Garcia and lost. Resch didn't run but like Ong, she is protected by provisions of the Local Government Code and its IRRI (Implementing Rules and Regulations), which allow them to hold over until their successors are elected and qualified.
That will be in December, unless the next Congress decides to postpone again the barangay and SK elections. Since 2018, the said elections were postponed three times: the last resetting was from May 2020 to December 2022.
The continued stay of Ong and Resch -- who as ex-officio members represent the theoretically non-partisan ABC and SK but are political allies of the minority -- adds two seats for BOPK, whose spoils in the last election were shrunk to four. Making a total of six votes for BOPK against Barug majority's 13, counting the VM who presides and votes in case of a tie.
'OVER-AGED RESCH.' The required maximum age of 24 years old for SK officers applies only on the day of the elections.
Councilor Resch -- reported in SunStar's "Wazzup" as 21 in 2018 and must be over 24 in 2022 -- has the right to keep her officio seat. The IRR of Republic Act 10742 says that an SK official who passes the age of 24 during the term of office "shall be allowed to serve the remaining portion of the term for which she was elected."
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PB'S THIRD EX-OFFICIO MEMBER. The Cebu Provincial Board has 14 elected members -- two for each of the seven districts -- plus three ex-officio members (ABC, SK and the Philippine Councilors League Cebu Province chapter), excluding Vice Governor Junjun Davide who presides and votes only in case of a tie. Davide was reelected in a lopsided match last May 9.
The third ex officio member, from the ranks of councilors -- aside from the number and composition of districts -- makes the Cebu PB different from the city Sanggunian.
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LETTER TO BBM. Crisologo V. Saavedra Jr. has applied for a job at the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV).
In a letter to presumed presidential election winner Bongbong Marcos dated May 17, Saavedra said he will serve "pro bono" for the Cebuanos and the rest of the Visayas. It is his "sincere obsession and advocacy to reform the system" and rid it of corruption, with the government job as his "death wish."
He didn't specify in the body of the letter the position he's aspiring for but underneath his name and signature was the line "Applicant for OPAV - Cebu City." As the presidential assistant, the top post in that office? Or as member of the secretary's staff? By the way, workers at OPAV, as in any other government office, are salaried, not volunteers.
Saavedra ran for Cebu City mayor as an independent, finishing a far #3 with 1,342 votes, compared to #1 Mike Rama's 226,328 and #2 Margot Osmeña's 190,328.
But Saavedra said, as "chairman of the BBM for President Movement in Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City," he campaigned "exclusively" for Marcos Jr. "I did my best to work for your victory."
In his letter, Saavedra called himself an "advocate for good government" for 19 years "with a record second to none in stopping corruption in government."
ONE-YEAR BAN. Saavedra and other defeated candidates in the last election are banned from appointment to any office anywhere in government and its subsidiaries and corporations within one year after the election.
The Constitution and the Local Government Code are specific about the prohibition. Only losers in barangay elections are exempted. But Saavedra said he was ready for an immediate interview.
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CHANGE OF MIND ON P10M. The Sandiganbayan, in its ruling convicting three Martinezes, Representative Paz Radaza and five others, mentioned why P10 million of the P25 million transferred IN 2003 by the then municipality of Bogo to Girl Scouts Cebu Council was later returned to the local government.
Then congresswoman Clavel A. Martinez, the Sandiganbayan noted, was disappointed in, or miffed by, the response to the donation and decided on the return of the P10 million to conduit LGU, which Bogo claimed to have used for road projects.
It must be one reason the anti-corruption court believed the former congresswoman "moved" the funds "as if they were her own."