QUICK LOOK
[] With split election results in 2019 -- One Cebu dominating PB and the governor’s office but losing the vice
governor’s seat -- they amended the local legislature’s Internal Rules of Procedure and silenced then VG Davide.
[] Davide for two terms as VG was barred from taking part in PB deliberations, except to rule on motions and bang the gavel. Rule was unique: at least no other local legislature was known to have used the clearly political move against an oppositionist presiding officer.
[] Fast forward to July 2025, One Cebu now having its own VG in the person of Glenn Soco, takes out the prohibition. The party doesn’t have the governor’s office but dominates the PB, with a presiding officer whose rights are not clipped.
ANTI-DAVIDE PROVISION. Paragraph B, section 1, rule 2 of the Cebu Provincial Board IRP (Internal Rules of Procedure) of July 2019 expressly read:
“The vice governor as chairman and presiding officer cannot take part in the deliberation of the Body except only to preside the Body and to vote in case of a tie. As vice governor, he cannot step down and vacate his position as chairman and presiding officer for purposes of sponsoring a resolution, ordinance or any other related official business or matter of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.”
It’s an anti-Davide rule because it was adopted, reportedly after a party caucus, to solve “the Davide situation:” an opposition vice governor (VG) and PB presiding officer under the term of a One Cebu Party governor.
6 YEARS AFTER, IT’S GONE. That’s two terms of Junjun Davide as vice governor and PB presiding officer. Six years during which Gwen Garcia, One Cebu Party head, was the governor.
In July 2025, there was no more need for the anti-Davide -- or more accurately, anti-opposition -- provision. The VG is Glenn Anthony Soco, running mate of Gwen Garcia, a One Cebu party-mate.
Thus, last July 7, 2025, under Resolution #1201-2025, the PB, the 17th Sangguniang Panlalawigan, unanimously adopted its Internal Rules of Procedure or IRP, which removed, eliminated, took out the anti-vice governor provision.
RELATED: Seares: Is Cebu vice guv Glenn Soco gagged and tied as Jun Davide was?
Seares: Gagging the vice governor. PB rules can do it, did it.
Other takeaways from the landmark development in local legislation:
[1] THEY DIDN’T AMEND; THEY ADOPTED ENTIRE SET OF RULES. Instead of just amending the particular paragraph that limits the VG’s authority (under the section on powers and duties of the chairman), they adopted the entire set of rules minus the ban on the presiding officer.
Of course, they must have made some other changes too. The part though that stripped the VG of non-presiding-officer powers and duties invites bigger public attention. So they must have aimed to reduce adverse noise by simply reenacting the entire IRP.
And they did, with some cheer-the-vice-guv provisions, such as:
-- That the VG “shall automatically become a member of all committees as a non-voting member.” That must include the right to take part in plenary deliberations by stepping down from his rostrum -- just like in other local legislatures such as the Cebu City Council -- and to sit in and discuss at committee meetings.
-- That he shall represent the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in all matters, unless another member is “especially designated” by a majority vote.
[2] FAIRNESS AS REASON FOR BAN -- AND FOR LIFTING BAN. News reports in 2019 included an explanation why the ruling party decided the move against Junjun Davide. They weren’t sure VG Davide would be “fair” as presiding officer.
“Fairness” demands, they said, that he’d be neutral and the only convenient way was to clip his power to take part in deliberations. Never mind that universal parliamentary rules require the presiding officer to step down before he takes part in discussions of legislative business. Or that the Supreme Court already laid down the rule of neutrality for the vice governor or vice mayor presiding over the local legislature.
How about fairness to the vice governor? Two board members belonging to One Cebu raised that as argument for removing the anti-Davide ban some 100 days after their first term. In sponsoring a resolution to amend the IRP, they say the gag was oppressive and unfair to the VG-presiding officer. As it turned out, the proposal failed to hurdle One Cebu’s top leadership.
Capitol watchers may wonder if the current PB members used the argument of fairness to VG Glenn Soco as the reason for finally taking off the gag.
[3] UNANIMOUS VOTE. Apparently there was no dissent to the new house rules. People would’ve been surprised if there was.
Only three are mentioned as authors of the IRP for the 17th PB -- Celestino Martinez III, Raymond Joseph Calderon and Andrei Duterte -- but “all the other PB members present” are specified as “co-authors.”
[4] SESSIONS, CAUCUSES. The PB has 20 members, comprising of the vice governor as presiding officer, 16 elected district representatives, and three de officio members.
It meets for regular sessions once a week, every Monday, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., preceded by a caucus presided by the vice governor. Not beyond 5 p.m. and not if a holiday falls on a Monday, unless the majority decides otherwise. It may hold special sessions as well as sessions in a district, under certain conditions.
Those caucuses, usually a party function, couldn’t have been held during Junjun Davide’s time, at least not before he reportedly made an unofficial alliance with the ruling party and was, in the words of a broadcaster, “neutralized.”
[5] SHIFT OF VG’S VIEW. Sentiment of the affected person -- the vice governor/presiding officer -- must always be considered. What does the gagged public official think?
Davide was asked, after his 100 days as vice governor and presiding officer, for his accomplishments. A solid and convenient reason was supplied by the limit on his powers and duties. He was “gagged,” he said, the first three months or so in office, he had been “doing nothing except to bang the gavel.”
After that extraordinary and un-Junjun-like public gripe, he hadn’t been heard to complain anymore. A news story even said he was pleased with his restricted role, “having now less to do.”
That, plus the unofficial yet obvious alliance with the governor and One Cebu, led to virtual death of the issue, hastened clearly by the minimal if not absent local media coverage of the Provincial Board.
[6] THE CEBU EXPERIENCE. The vanishing of the issue must have dismayed some opposition vice governors and vice mayors across the country. They who wanted Davide to fight for the No. 2 officials’ rights, perhaps to make the Cebu experience an example of successful resistance against an “oppressive” legislative majority.
[7] COMPARING WITH CEBU CITY COUNCIL and other local legislatures. Under Cebu City Sanggunian rules, the vice mayor-presiding officer can exercise the rights of a regular member.
Such as: heading, or being a member of, a committee; or sponsoring a resolution or ordinance or blocking a proposal, which allows him to yield the chair, step down and join the debate. Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña is chairman of the committee on education, science and technology.
The PB ban from 2019 to 2025 in Cebu Province looked odd compared to the absence of such a ban in other LGUs, making it stand out across the country. Outstanding.