[] Rival politicians may quarrel over any kind of stuff. Then governor Gwendolyn Garcia engaged in a kerfuffle with her vice governor, Gregorio Sanchez (+), regarding budget outlays -- but also over a Capitol newsletter/newspaper.
They did: over the Cebu Provincial Board's monthly publication called "Legislative Gavel." Gwen shut the paper down and Greg included it as "another tyranny" in his complaint before the CSC and DILG.
[1] Party mates' breakup. Gwendolyn "Gwen" Garcia won first term in the local government in 2004, earning then the title of Cebu's first woman elected governor and starting her stint as five-term governor, interrupted only by term limit in 2013 and election defeat in 2025.
Her running mate under One Cebu in her first political battle was Gregorio "Greg" Sanchez Jr. who would later win two more terms (in 2007 and 2010) before he died of lung cancer at 68 on April 29, 2011, cutting his third term short.
Greg escalated his breakup with Gwen as a political ally when in November 2010 he sued the governor before the Civil Service Commission (CSC), citing mainly "the removal of salaries and wages for casual employees of his office and those of the Provincial Board members in the legislative budget." Gwen had slashed the 2011 budget for the vice governor's office from P45.5 million to P18 million and each PB member's office from P8 million to P2.4 million. Then she allegedly transferred the money to the executive budget.
Sanchez also scored "arbitrary and tyrannical acts" of Garcia since Greg left the administration party in 2009. "Gwen started harassing me," he alleged, acts that included stopping publication of the "Legislative Gavel."
HERE are the other takeaways from an unusual, if not strange, controversy over government media: involving a Capitol newsletter/newspaper, whose scuttling helped support a vice governor's complaint against the governor:
[2] What Provincial Board's "Legislative Gavel" was. A monthly publication "highlighting legislative activities and information" -- whose maiden issue was on September 27, 2008, also vice guv Greg's birthday -- the "Gavel" was operated by the office of vice governor but funded by the executive department. In June 2010, Gwen ordered that funding for the "Gavel" be stopped.
"Gavel" was technically a newsletter but Greg Sanchez, in his September 13, 2010 privilege speech before the PB, said it was "another political tyranny," admitting he was not "in good terms with governor." He titled the speech "Death of a Newspaper," implying that the governor silenced the "Gavel."
Obviously, the "Gavel" was not the kind of newspaper that Cebu's dailies are although its content somewhat aped that of newspapers sold to the general public. "Gavel" had news and features, even an editorial. It was similar in page size to the Cebuano-Bisaya "Superbalita" and "Banat News." It devoted most of its space though to news and information though to developments and activities of the Provincial Board.
Junino Padila and Ferliza C. Contratista were the first and last editors-in-chief, respectively. Its line of EICs included Jun Tenchavez and Rhina Seco, with Evangeline de Paula as consultant and temp top editor whenever the seat was vacant. Contratista told me Monday, October 6, 2025, they had one complete issue aborted and not printed after the stoppage order was issued. A news report said the last publication was July 2010.
[3] Gwen believed 'Gavel' duplicated 'Sugbo'; Greg disagreed. The governor saw the "Gavel" as similar in function and utility as "Sugbo," official publication of the Provincial Government.
The vice governor said "Gavel" was still needed even if there was "Sugbo." Different areas and subjects of focus. Besides, "Gavel" began publishing two years ahead of "Sugbo," Sanchez said in his PB speech. A board member suggested that legislative materials for "Gavel" be included in "Sugbo" instead.
[4] Politics cannot be ruled out. In deciding on having only "Sugbo" as the Capitol publication, apparently, Gwen wanted a centralized flow of information, managed by her office, not by the vice governor who was, in Greg's words, "simply not in good terms with the governor."
Despite denials that no politics was involved, would "Gavel" not have gone on banging, if Gwen and Greg were still political chums?
[5] 'Gavel' closure wasn't the principal gripe. But the decision of the Office of the President (O.P.) that affirmed DILG suspension of the governor cited the "Gavel" issue as No. 3 in the list.
The O.P. ruling said Gwen exceeded her authority by (1) encroaching on Greg's authority when she hired 19 consultants without prior authority of the Provincial Board, (2) slashing vice guv's budget by 61 percent, and (3) closing the publication "Legislative Gavel." And four other acts that, the O.P. established, supported the finding of excess or abuse.
The complaint with CSC and DILG eventually resulted in the six-month suspension ordered by then secretary Jesse Robredo and affirmed for the president's office by then executive secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.
[6] Cebu hearings held by DILG on Gwen's suspension were lively, including one in which then "Gavel" editor Ferliza Contratista testified about her job at the Provincial Board and its publication. In that hearing, opposing lawyers of Gwen and Greg almost came to blows. Guess who: an Atty. Sepulveda and an Atty. Kintanar.
One couldn't imagine it now happening: a dispute over government media and the heat it generated in the local media community, with at least three reporters summoned to testify about certain Capitol stories they wrote.
[7] Why it came to all that. The number of stories about the "Gavel" controversy in news archives attest to its being different and interesting: a quarrel over government media, the sort of publishing feud that normally would occur only in operations of private publishers.
Who would've thought that in Capitol's legislative hall would resound a voice lamenting the "death of a newspaper," not one of the community newspapers but a government-owned mouthpiece?
Greg Sanchez said something that may have been drowned out by the charge of politicking and personal enmity: "If 'Sugbo' is important to the executive department, so is the 'Legislative Gavel' to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan."