With the two remaining Provincial Board Members and three replacements for ex-officio PBMs, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan can continue to hold sessions pending the appointment of nominees in place of seven suspended PBMs.
Last Monday, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) served the designation of PBM Fred Benedict T. Gianan as acting vice governor to serve in place of the suspended Vice Governor Robert A. Fernandez.
Also designated as PBMs were the Philippine Councilors League (PCL) vice president and Virac Councilor Joseph L. Mendoza; Liga ng mga Barangay (LnB) Provincial Federation vice president Honesto V. Lumabi of San Andres; and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Provincial Federation vice president Roy T. Buendia.
The three new PBMs will replace the PCL president PBM Rafael C. Zuniega; LnB president PBM Tito V. Villamor and SKPF president PBM Alvin Rodriguez.
The two surviving PBMs – Gianan and Xyrell Albaniel ran under Lakas but the latter is now considered by political observers to be in the camp of Governor Patrick Alain T. Azanza.
On the other hand, Mendoza and Lumabi are identified with the camp of former Governor Joseph C. Cua while Buendia is an ally of Bato Mayor Juan T. Rodulfo.
The designations came after the Ombudsman preventively suspended Vice Gov. Fernandez, PBMs Josevan Balidoy, Giovanni Balmadrid, Jose Romeo Francisco, Alvin Rodriguez, Edwin Tanael, Lorenzo Templonuevo Jr., Arnel Turado and Dean Roberto Vergara, as well as the three ex-officio members for a period of six months without pay.
The graft prosecution body’s order in the complaint filed by Gov. Azanza left the provincial legislature with just two members: PBM Gianan and PBM Albaniel.
Still to be filled up are the temporary vacancies for seven regular SP members, whose replacements will be nominated by their respective political parties to the Office of the President.
The question of SP quorum
Based on similar cases in Cebu City, Antique province and Dagupan City, the DILG has allowed their respective councils to hold sessions despite having less than half of total membership due to suspensions.
In the case of Cebu City, the department stated that the quorum shall be determined from the remaining four (4) out of the 18 members and added that the presence of three (3) members, including the ex-officio member and the Acting Vice Mayor, is sufficient to constitute a quorum and transact official business.
To determine the quorum based on the total number of Sanggunian members in all instances, even those where the Sanggunian can no longer exercise its coercive power such as death or suspension of any member, would defeat the meaning and intention of the legislature and cripple the functioning of the Sanggunian, it stressed.
In Dagupan City, the regional director cited DILG Legal Opinion No. 16, S., 2006, which upheld the view that the prevention suspension of the vice mayor and five officials “places these officials outside the jurisdiction of the Sanggunian and their preventive suspension constitutes a legal restriction on their ability to discharge their powers, duties, and functions.”
Consequently, the official said, the five (5) remaining qualified Sanggunian members would serve as basis for determining quorum, an opinion which the DILG stated is supported by the Supreme Court’s decision in Avelino vs. Cuenca (83 Phil. 17).
Just last year in Antique province, the DILG designated three temporary SP members, all second highest officers of their local government leagues, to join the remaining five members after eight of their colleagues were issued suspensions by the Ombudsman.