BACOLOD City Acting Vice Mayor Ricardo Tan hit back at Mayor Evelio Leonardia for claiming he failed to gather a quorum.
"The statement of Mayor Bing is not only irresponsible, but it also shows that the mayor of Bacolod is the modern-day version of Pontius Pilate. He is washing his hands because he saw the super negative effect of the trip of his supermajority," Tan said.
He said he only signed the application for leave of absence of Councilors Em Ang and Bartolome Orola, but he has no idea that the four other councilors will also travel to Long Beach, California.
On July 19, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran and Councilors Caesar Distrito, Dindo Ramos, Cindy Rojas, Renecito Novero, Orola and Ang were on an official trip to Long Beach, California.
Leonardia had earlier said he only signed the official leave of Familiaran while the leave of Ang and Orola were signed by Tan.
He said it was Familiaran who signed the official leave of Distrito, Rojas, Novero and Ramos.
"It is because of poor leadership he (Tan) failed to gather for a quorum. He should not blame the trip of the other officials because he also signed the travel of the two councilors. He made the statement which is so funny," he added
Tan also countered that there are only 12 elected members and two sectoral representatives in the City Council so with seven abroad, they need the presence of all the remaining eight members to constitute a quorum.
"If we are going to follow the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Circular No. 2018-03 or the Guidelines in the issuance of the travel authority for foreign travels of DILG local government and interior sectors personnel, the request for travel authority should be submitted to the DILG Secretary within 15 working days prior to the date of departure," Tan said.
He added: This simply means that Familiaran and the six councilors have planned their travel to America ahead of time or several weeks before they went abroad. Otherwise, their request for travel authority would have been disapproved by the DILG secretary.
The August body has no session for two Wednesdays, on July 25 and August 1, due to lack of quorum.
Tan said they failed to constitute a quorum because on the July 25 session, Councilors Sy and Noli Villarosa were on leave and on August 1, Councilors Sonya Verdeflor and Villarosa were on leave again.
"Since they were absent, will the mayor will blame me for these? I am not a superman to fetch Sy or Villarosa to attend the session. They created this scenario, they created this problem. This is very unfair to me and to the people of Bacolod. This is your fault. You are the mayor, the father of the city and you have all the power and authority to stop your group of councilors from travelling to America. Mayor, shame on you," he said.
He added the mayor should not claim that quorum is simply a question of leadership, but it's a demand for the performance of a public duty.
