The council in a quandary
Last year’s elections saw candidates for councilors from Team Rama overwhelm their rivals from the BOPK, ten to six, in Cebu City. The gap in numbers grew wider with the inclusion of Philip Zafra as ex-officio member, representing the city’s barangays,
But that proved to be only temporary. Less than two months into their term, Hanz Abella and Dave Tumulak declared that they were turning “independent.” In fact, they were turncoats. Jerry Guardo was more forthright when his turn to defect came in March this year. In the press conference that he called to announce that he was cutting ties with Team Rama, he made sure that Mayor Tommy Osmeña was at his side.
From 6-11 to 9-8, BOPK very clearly has the numerical advantage in the city council, a fact that Team Rama just as clearly recognized when they agreed to elect Margot Osmeña majority floor leader after voting to declare all positions in the city’s legislature, including committee chairmanships, vacant.
But does numerical superiority in elected (and ex-officio) councilors translate to legal majority in the city council? Osmeña thinks so; after all, his wife had just been chosen by her peers as head of the majority contingent in the body.
Apparently, Team Rama thought so, too as evidenced by their quick voluntary surrender of their committee chairmanships. But just before the reorganization that would have completely shut them out of any meaningful position in the council other than as a member could take place, someone said, wait, they’re not the majority yet, on their own, they can’t constitute a quorum; the Supreme Court says so.
La Carlota versus Rojo was promulgated on April 24, 2012. Quorum was a side issue, the main one being the validity of Rojo’s appointment as council secretary, but it was treated extensively in the decision.
In essence, the Supreme Court ruled that the vice mayor is a member of the city council and therefore he should be included for purposes of determining a quorum. Applied to the Cebu City factual setting, it means that Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella is a member, therefore the total membership of the council is eighteen not seventeen and that since majority is defined as one half of the total members plus one, the magic number for purposes of attaining a quorum is ten, not nine.
But what happens if all the 18 members, including Labella, attend a council session? Definitely, a quorum is present. In that event, can the BOPK push for a reorganization of the council? Note that the vice mayor can only vote to break a tie.
Indeed, in invoking La Carlota, do Team Rama councilors really think they can stop the reorganization from taking place? Or are they just postponing the inevitable?
But the more paramount question is, can’t Team Rama and the BOPK learn to co-exist? Must it be zero chairmanship for the party that won overwhelmingly in the election but lost badly in the struggle for loyalty and affection?