By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Councilors Claudio “Kalaw” Puentevella and Roberto Rojas engaged in a verbal tussle over the former’s appointment as chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s (SP) committee on finance and appropriation.
Rojas criticized the appointment of Mayor Monico Puentevella’s son, while the latter said criticisms on his appointment are “an insult to the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod.”
The SP recently approved the changing of its committee chairmanships. The finance and appropriation committee was previously chaired by Rojas.
Rojas said the city’s financial affairs will be “left to the discretion of a father and his son.”
He said the majority should have chosen someone senior and thus more capable in handling finances, “not somebody like Councilor Puentevella, who is a freshman and the son of the mayor.”
“How can we expect the (SP) to scrutinize or check the financial requests of the administration when the official who is supposed to do that is the son of the official who makes the request,” Rojas asked.
In defense, Puentevella said, “The selection of committee chairmanships is a collegial action based on the collegial wisdom of the City Council.”
He believes his being a son of the mayor is “irrelevant” as far as his selection is concerned.
“The SP is separate and distinct from the executive,” he stressed. And “there is no provision in our internal rules that specifies the need for a senior member to become chairman (of the finance and appropriation committee).”
Mayor Puentevella defended his son’s appointment. He said, “I don’t meddle with the work of the SP. I respect them. If they did not elect Kalaw, it doesn’t matter. But they should respect the majority.”
‘GRISLY’
Councilor El Cid Familiaran also defended his colleague’s appointment. “The SP is a collegial body,” he told Panay News in a text message. “The executive proposes, and the SP disposes, not Councilor Kalaw.”
The verbal tussle went sharper beyond the confines of the City Council. Former mayor and now Cong. Evelio Leonardia, over a television interview, described the setup as “makangilidlis (grisly).”
Councilor Puentevella said the congressman “should doubly concentrate on his own work.” “We have not heard a single bill from him that is about to be passed,” he said.
He said the former mayor “should not meddle with the SP.” “Please mind your own business,” he told Leonardia. “You’re insulting SP members who can do a much better job than you in Congress.”
Rojas, a Leonardia ally, defended the congressman. “By hitting on the Cong. Bing (Leonardia), Councilor Kalaw is trying to diver the issue on how he and his father … teamed up to take control of the financial affairs of Bacolod,” he said.
Puentevella, he said, “should focus on the issue: Why does it have to be him … when the mayor is his father and he is just a freshman councilor?”/PN
