BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia slammed Councilor Ricardo “Cano” Tan over what he called the latter’s “poor leadership” being the city’s acting vice mayor.
Being the acting vice mayor, Tan led the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) for the past two weeks.
In those weeks, the SP failed to transact any business due to lack of quorum.
Tan earlier said this was a “black eye to the good name” of the city council, blaming seven SP members who flew abroad in July for an official 16-day trip.
These SP members – Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran and councilors Em Ang, Caesar Distrito, Bartolome Orola, Cindy Rojas, Renecito Novero, and Dindo Ramos – went to Long Beach City, California to attend Bacolod’s sister city’s version of the MassKara Festival.
The seven SP members are all allied with Grupo Progreso (GP), a local political group that Leonardia leads.
They were back in the city yesterday, just in time for the SP’s regular session moved to Friday.
Last week, Tan said the SP members must have taken into consideration that public interest will be jeopardized should they leave the city en masse.
Tan also said Leonardia should have not allowed the out-of-the-country travel of his GP colleagues.
Yesterday, Leonardia responded, “Indi sia kahambal nga ang rason Grupo Progreso. It is because of poor leadership.”
The mayor said the absence of the seven SP members was not the “direct reason” behind the two-week no-quorum scenario at the session hall.
Before leaving, Distrito said the SP can still transact business with eight out of its 15 members left, which Leonardia reiterated.
Leonardia also said he was not the only one who signed the leave form of the councilors who went abroad.
Tan approved the leave forms of Ang and Orola, the mayor added.
“It only shows that Tan cannot understand what to do as an acting vice mayor,” said Leonardia.
He added, “Ang sala niya lang wala sia galantaw sang iya kodigo.”/PN
