Valdehuesa: Vice Mayor Should Preside or Resign

LAST week, a front-page story in this paper unwittingly exposed what right-thinking officials and ordinary citizens could only whisper about since the current administration took over.

It illustrated how privileged Vice Mayor Vicente Emano is, how the rest of officialdom has been indulgent towards miscreant behavior, and how dysfunctional is governance in this city.

So privileged is Mr. Emano that he can ignore the House Rules of the branch of government he heads without being sanctioned or held to account for his misdeed.

As the Council’s presiding officer—its leading member—he seems to regard himself as above and beyond its rules. Section 70 states that any member incurring four (4) consecutive absences from its sessions is liable to censure, reprimand, or suspension. But he ignores it with the confidence of one who knows no one would dare apply it on him.

Not only has he been absent 4 consecutive times many times, he hasn’t bothered to show up 94 consecutive times! That’s 94 out of 95 sessions—a 99.9 percent failure rating! A clear case of abandonment, dereliction of duty, ignorance, or incompetence. Or all of the above.

But until Councilor Zaldy Ocon and his allies denounced it on the floor last week, no one at City Hall bothered to raise the issue.

This puts into question the fitness and dedication of the city councilors as well as the wisdom of the City Government’s acts or decisions.

In failing to act on the aberrant behavior of its presiding officer, the council appears as an irresponsible body or, worse, as a co-conspirator in the designs of a wrongdoer.

Sure, Mr. Emano is the second highest official of our city; but no one should fear questioning his deviant behavior. His habitual truancy has deprived the council of leadership and direction in its proceedings, making it an unreliable body for policy-making or legislation.

One can forgive a public servant’s occasional lapses, but to be A SLACKER ALL OF THE TIME is unforgivable.

In his duty as presiding officer of our legislature, Mr. Emano performed once and only once. He did so only to bang the gavel for the council’s opening session two years ago on July 5, 2007. After that, he never showed up again.

His excuse? He was on “official business.” What “official business” is he talking about? His principal and official duty is to steer the Council’s proceedings, along with signing all warrants drawn on the city treasury for all its expenditures. This is ordained by both the Local Government Code and its implementing rules and regulations.

Perhaps he relishes doing only the withdrawals from the treasury — the money-dispensing part of his job, not the presiding part!

He has been quoted as saying that “presiding or even attending regular council sessions was not his cup of tea as he dislikes ‘debates’ that are common in legislative sessions.”

If so, why did he seek the office? Did he run in ignorance of its duties or under false pretenses? Didn’t any of his lawyers, including his allies in the Council, inform him that debates are the heart and soul of legislation?

Ask any parliamentarian. Deliberation, exchange and consensus leading to resolution are the essence of the legislative process. Without these, legislation and its wisdom or propriety is inchoate.

Without debate and deliberation, mediocrity would rule; half-baked policy would result; decisions would not benefit from collegial exchange; and ideas or proposals would not be refined by collective wisdom and experience.

Mr. Emano’s zero presence means he has zero contribution to the crafting or refining of city policy and program planning. It means that the collegial process of legislating for an effective city government does not benefit from his service. It also means that his insistence on acting like a mayor is out of place and an assault on a co-equal branch of government.

One thing sure, he has never missed collecting his salary and all sorts of emoluments from Day One. Truancy has earned him hundreds of thousands yearly, plus more from bonuses and other allowances. It is an indecent way to earn a living or to hang on to power. But no one tells him.

It’s time to awaken and stamp out deviant political behavior. A good start would be to watch the City Council in session and behold how it conducts business without its presiding officer. Street Talk, Manuel Valdehuesa of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro

Troop to City Hall tomorrow, Tuesday. Session starts 9:00 a.m.
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