A last ditch heroic of a Sangguniang Panglungsud opposition member was no match to the tyranny of numbers as the city law making body Friday tackled the request of City Mayor Dan Neri Lim for an authority to apply for a loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines.
Voting 8-4, the majority block used its superior force to shot down the proposal of opposition lawmaker Bibiano Inting to defer the request for any further deliberation considering the tricky complications surrounding the loan application. Inting rallied his colleagues to refer the proposal to the committee on appropriations but to no avail.
A majority member Lucio Balbin crossed party lines to join the minority but his vote was compensated with that of Kagawad Edgar Kapirig who was earlier believed to keel over to the opposition.
The three other opposition votes were that of Kagawads Zenaido Rama, Mariquit Anne Oppus and Inting.
After a tumultuous debate of the issue, Councilor Oscar Glovasa, appropriations committee chair, moved to divide the house. With the outcome becoming predictable, the minority already knew that the inevitable was going to happen-- defeat of monstrous proportion. It also sounded the death knell of the opposition's chances of buying time to deliberate the loan application before the dreaded division of the house was resorted to as the aces up the sleeves of the SP majority.
When the voting pattern was determined showing the lopsided results, the resolution authorizing the city mayor to negotiate a loan with DBP was carried out.
As the smoke of partisan skirmish subsided, Kagawad Edgar Bompat, majority floor leader, stood up to rationalize why the SP authority was needed to authorize Mayor Lim to apply for the DBP loan. He said with the authority, the mayor is now free to implement major infrastructure projects which had been languishing in the drawing board for quite a time.
Among the flagship projects lined up by the mayor are the Water Treatment Facility, Solid Waste Management all located in Taloto and the concreting of city roads.
Earlier, Mayor Lim sought an SP approval of a DBP loan from P500,000.00 to P 1 billion, but when his request was deliberated Friday the final amount was P450,000.00. (With reports from Sen Guingguing) - Sunday Post
Voting 8-4, the majority block used its superior force to shot down the proposal of opposition lawmaker Bibiano Inting to defer the request for any further deliberation considering the tricky complications surrounding the loan application. Inting rallied his colleagues to refer the proposal to the committee on appropriations but to no avail.
A majority member Lucio Balbin crossed party lines to join the minority but his vote was compensated with that of Kagawad Edgar Kapirig who was earlier believed to keel over to the opposition.
The three other opposition votes were that of Kagawads Zenaido Rama, Mariquit Anne Oppus and Inting.
After a tumultuous debate of the issue, Councilor Oscar Glovasa, appropriations committee chair, moved to divide the house. With the outcome becoming predictable, the minority already knew that the inevitable was going to happen-- defeat of monstrous proportion. It also sounded the death knell of the opposition's chances of buying time to deliberate the loan application before the dreaded division of the house was resorted to as the aces up the sleeves of the SP majority.
When the voting pattern was determined showing the lopsided results, the resolution authorizing the city mayor to negotiate a loan with DBP was carried out.
As the smoke of partisan skirmish subsided, Kagawad Edgar Bompat, majority floor leader, stood up to rationalize why the SP authority was needed to authorize Mayor Lim to apply for the DBP loan. He said with the authority, the mayor is now free to implement major infrastructure projects which had been languishing in the drawing board for quite a time.
Among the flagship projects lined up by the mayor are the Water Treatment Facility, Solid Waste Management all located in Taloto and the concreting of city roads.
Earlier, Mayor Lim sought an SP approval of a DBP loan from P500,000.00 to P 1 billion, but when his request was deliberated Friday the final amount was P450,000.00. (With reports from Sen Guingguing) - Sunday Post
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