BOPK changed council rule in 2018; Barug may now use it against its rival

Osmeña’s group, the dominant party in the 14th Sanggunian, modified the house rule to reverse the Sanggunian rejection of the P18B Kawit project

The House rules of any legislature, in Congress or in the local city or town councils or the Provincial Board, aim to govern proceedings in an orderly manner.

Most of the rules are based on universal standards such as Robert Rules of Order and requirements of the law on specific matters.

But the house rules are not inscribed on stone. They may be changed by an incoming council or board, usually on the first session day, with the intent to conduct business more efficiently—or to pursue partisan interest.

P18B Kawit project

On July 3, 2018, at the inaugural session of the 14th Sanggunian, the Cebu City Council changed one house rule for a plainly partisan interest.

BOPK had failed to pass in the 13th Sanggunian the ordinance authorizing the P18 billion Kawit Island development. Then mayor Tomas Osmeña’s party didn’t have enough votes in the Council. And when in 2018 it already had the number, it couldn’t revive the ordinance because of the house rules. Only the member who voted against the measure could bring it back, within one week after the Council voted on it.

What to do then? Change the rule so as to allow resurrection of the killed ordinance. Then BOPK stalwart and majority leader Margot Osmeña sponsored the ordinance that would enable revival and approval of the Kawit ordinance. BOPK struck down, by a 9-8 vote, the house rule that required a member who voted “no” to sponsor

it. Under Margot’s new rule, a member who voted “yes” or “no” can sponsor the revival and the new action can be done at any succeeding regular meeting.

Shift of control

The change of house rules served the interest of BOPK then. But, with a new mayor and the shift in the Council control, the amended rule now serves the interest of its rival Partido Barug. Barug can revive and strike down measures that BOPK rammed through when the latter dominated the Council.

With the balance converted to Barug’s favor, it can undo BOPK program and policy. Specifically, the clutch of measures that then councilor Sisinio Andales pushed and got approved in the dying days of the 14th Sanggunian, which were aimed to tie the hands of the new mayor, Barug’s Edgar Labella, and the legislature on the controversial SRP lots and the earnings from their sale.

Basis for old rule

The old rule was intended to close an issue so as not to disturb, for a partisan or personal interest, a controversy already voted upon and decided. With the new rule, the faction that is defeated at the first voting can seek another House division once it acquires the votes to win. There may be no end to a conflicting issue or policy. Stability in decision-making suffers.

Obviously, the rule promotes and increases partisan strife. And it perpetuates the scramble of each party to lure defectors and stoke the passion to flit from one party to the other.

Much of the history of Davao is about the struggle to protect the land. The premier historian of Davao is Prof. Macario Tiu, PhD, from Ateneo de Davao, who recorded two significant phases of the indigenous struggles against colonialism.