BOPK councilors strike again

BANDO Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) councilors “killed” an attempt by Councilor Gerardo Carillo of Team Rama to have the Cebu City Council continue the deliberation on the proposed P2.8 billion Supplemental Budget (SB) 1. As a result, the plan to pay in full the balance of the loan for the south reclamation project (now the South Road Properties or SRP) and fund important concerns like garbage disposal and incentives for City Hall employees is scuttled.

The BOPK strategy against the administration of Mayor Michael Rama has always been to stymie efforts to increase revenues and weaken its ability to fund the implementation of programs and projects. Rama's first term and the early stages of his second term, for example, saw him struggling to get a capable and permanent city treasurer. His proposed budgets were pruned.

Consistent with this was the blocking of plans to sell SRP lots, which could have earned for the city revenues to deal with major concerns, like drainage. What the BOPK failed to anticipate, however, was the brewing revolt within its ranks that resulted in three of its members bolting the party and the passage of a resolution giving authority to the mayor to sell SRP lots.

After former mayor Tomas Osmeña stopped the bleeding and found a way for the BOPK to retain control of the City Council, the obvious next move was to prevent the Rama administration from proceeding with the sale and consum- mating it. Rama initially outmaneuvered the BOPK councilors, however, getting from the winning bidders the P8.35 billion down payment.

It is in this context that the case for declaratory relief and injunction recently filed by taxpayer Romulo Torres should be viewed. It conveniently provided the BOPK councilors with a reason to block SB 1, whose funding source is the P8.35 billion down payment. On SB 1, here's where the politicking showed:

One, the BOPK councilors followed the same scheme they had when they attempted to block the sale of SRP lots. They used an external act to rationalize an internal move. In the first instance, a nebulous Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) 7 opinion that they themselves solicited was used. In the second instance, they used the case filed by Torres. It was meant to cushion the impact of the politicking.

Two, to ensure that the public opinion backlash won't be heavy, Councilor Margot Osmeña, wife of the BOPK chief, mouthed what she has been mouthing since she became chairperson of the committee on budget and finance: transfer the fault to the Rama administration (translation: tell the mayor what to do).

On SB 1, she suggested that the mayor look for other funding sources for SB 1, something that City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said could not be done. Rama's response was expected: do not tell the mayor what to do. Indeed, the city councilors' job is either to pass SB 1 or reject it, not to return it to the mayor and tell him what they want him to do.

Which brings me to the third point. Why did the BOPK councilors chose to “suspend” the deliberation instead of vote against the passage of SB 1? Why sit on it instead of making it go through the legislative mill? Are they afraid that the mayor will again outmaneuver them?

What the BOPK councilors are doing on SB 1 provides a reason why the voters should ensure that after the May 2016 elections, the mayor and majority of the members of the City Council should belong to the same party.