Talisay councilors deny ‘double standards’ tag
Talisay City officials yesterday denied accusations that they lied and practiced double standard when they failed to accredit an urban poor association.
The City of Talisay Federation of Homeowners Association (CT-FEDHOA) filed a complaint before the office of the Ombudsman Visayas against Vice Mayor Alan Bucao and nine city councilors for allegedly not accrediting the group.
The councilors were Arturo Bas, Socrates Fernandez, Gail Restauro, Manuel Cabriana, Rudolfo Cabigas, Valeriano Ylanan, Richard Francis Aznar, Julian Daan, and Raul Cabañero.
City Councilors Dory Emit and Antonio Bacaltos Jr. were not included in the complaint.
In their complaint, CT- FEDHOA officials claimed that it has been more than 118 days since they applied for accreditation from the Sangguniang Panlungsod and the committee on accreditation headed by Cabañero but they still have not received any formal communication.
Cabañero earlier explained that he had passed a committee report to the council for CT-FEDHOA's accreditation but it was not tackled.
The association alleged the council accredited other associations even when they did not follow Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Local Government Code but ignoring CT-FEDHOA.
Fernandez, though, said the association CT has yet to comply with the all requirements needed stipulated under Article 64 of the Local Government Code IRR, which states that the council would accredit communitybased organizations with project development and implementation and with a track record of at least one year.
He said the allegations were untrue, as the council only accredits associations that complied with the one-year requirement and those who want to renew accreditation.
Fernandez said they have the intention to accredit CT-FEDHOA, however, the association should comply first with all the requirements.
Bucao, on the other hand, said there was no committee report about CTFEDHOA's accreditation.
Council secretary Emigdio Enjambre Jr. attested to this, saying that the resolution on its accreditation was stricken out from the calendar of business last August 15 after it was found out that Cabañero failed to submit a committee report about it.
Bucao said the committee report was still within the level of its members and has not yet been formally presented before the council for inclusion in its discussion.
“Sa iya (Cabañero) pag-agenda wala siya'y committee report , gicorrect namo. Before maapprove ang calendar of business gi-amend for exclusion, na exclude to siya (CT-FEDHOA's accreditation),” he said.
Cabañero, though, said he did file a request for inclusion in the August 15 regular session's agenda of a committee report online with the council, with the intention of giving the actual report and the supporting documents during the caucus an hour prior to the session.
“Naa may committee report, wala nga ingon nga nagpabaya ko. Gi-calendar of business sa computer but to follow (na ang committee report and other supporting documents) na during caucus sa deliberation. Wala na discuss kay gilaid on the table tungod kay sa requirement at least one year,” he said.
“Mao ako failure, it is my own lapse nga wala nako physically na-deliver (ang committee report) ngadto sa SP secretary (Enjambre) ug chairman (Bucao). I learned from it, sunod tagsa-tagsa na og hatag (to all councilors) dili na to follow,” he added.