THE Provincial Board of Negros Occidental ended 2016 without a regular session due to lack of quorum Wednesday.
Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and Board Members Salvador Escalante Jr., Jose Maria Alonso, Manuel Ko and Annabelle Bermudo, five of the 15 board members, including the presiding officer, were present.
The lack of quorum prompted the board members to call off the session around 2:20 p.m.
Board Member Renato Malabor Jr. came in late.
Escalante said they have taken up all the items for the year in the session last week.
“We have no items to take up in the agenda. We ended the session in 2016 without a backlog. All items have been taken up, pending items have been disposed and acted upon. Everybody is on vacation mode,” he explained.
New vehicles
Escalante said the eight brand-new service vehicles purchased for the board members worth almost P9 million are expected to be delivered in January.
The vehicles are intended for the six neophyte board members – Renato Malabor Jr., Annabelle Bermudo, Valentino Alonso, Jose Maria Alonso, Samson Mirhan, and David Lacson.
Escalante and Pedro Zayco also requested for new vehicles.
Each vehicle, a Nissan Navara Calibre, costs P1.050 million. Each board member is entitled to P1.3 million for vehicle purchase.
Escalante also said the service vehicles will be marked with the official Provincial Government seal.
His and Zayco’s current service cars will be passed on to other offices, Escalante added.