SP underhandling controversy breaks out!
A vocal rebuke came to the provincial information officer of Davao del Norte from board members during the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session Monday afternoon for what officials apparently expressed as acts belittling the legislative department during several big provincial events last year.
Senior Board Member Shirley Belen Aala during the session’s question hour portion said she was really hurt over the way the SP had been belittled in “so many times that I have seen presentations of events regarding the glamor of Davao del Norte.”
Aala told PIO Sofonias Gabonada Jr. that he should “bear in mind that the provincial government is consists of two important departments- the executive and legislative department.”
“I know most of those events highlighting the glories and milestones of Davao del Norte could not be made possible without the sanction” of the SP, she said, adding that “all projects, whether successful or not, is always coming from the body of our 13 board members and the presiding officer.”
“Sad to say these presentations during big events occurred not only during the institutional Christmas party, there are more to that, Sofing,” Aala said.
She added that the legislative officials including the staff were “really saddened” that during the last Christmas party the video presentation on the accomplishments of the SP “showed only a gavel and a hand, without faces, no person is found”.
Video presentations of other departments have accordingly lots of photo highlights.
The apparently disheartened senior board member said that the SP has Vice Governor Victorio Suaybaguio Jr. as presiding officer, “sometimes I act as the presiding officer, sometimes (Board Member Joey) Millan, but there’s no face, it’s faceless, why are you ashamed to present our faces?”.
“I guess we are very fluent, very active, dynamic cooperative despite our ages, so I believe that the Sangguniang Panlalawigan deserves a very special space and time,” Aala said.
Gabonada in his reply first made an apology on his failure to attend in last week’s session, then he proceeded to read his prepared paper to deliver a length of reasons and narration for about 5 minutes as board members waited for him to finish.
He reasoned out that the information office had to beat for limited two days’ time to come up audio-video (AV) presentations of all departments before the institutional Christmas party last Dec. 23.
After citing that there was ample TV coverage hours last year for the legislative department, he admitted that they committed lapses on AV presentations not only for the SP but also to the office of the governor and the office of the provincial administrator
But he blamed that the lapse to the SP could come from the failure of the office of the SP secretariat led by SP secretary Dennis Dean Castillo to give them the needed data with accompanying five important photos, as the former were on out-of-town activity when the latter requested the materials last Dec. 21.
Gabonada said they were referred to the office of the vice governor but they failed to get the same as a staff told them to get the data and photos to the secretariat, a reason refuted by an SP insider that Gabonada given the situation he had could have just easily made an initiative by playing up from the few of the thousands of photos from the Facebook of the vice governor and of the SP employees.
Gabonada further said they had already corrected the lapse during the New Year’s welcome activity attended by 10,000 people, claiming they promoted the SP on that occasion.
But Board Member Ely Dacalus was obviously less pious compared to Aala when he slammed Gabonada and information personnel for making their own time-consuming shows than giving SP members opportunities to speak during big occasions of the province.
Dacalus let his misgivings out to several events last year like the one in Waterfront Hotel where felt he seemed to be “melting” out from embarrassment due to unrecognition, and during an affair held at RDR Gym where he was wondering why PIO people were made to talk for a long time while SP members got unrecognized.
He also recalled the activity where the board members were pressed to come up their accomplishments within 30 minutes when the period covered was a long 8 years.
He told Gabonada: “Merong pa kang patingala tingala sa langit, may paatras atras ka pa, may paabante ka pa, when in fact dapat mag inhibit ka…. Dahil ikaw ang head eh, ikaw pa ang kumukuha ng time, dapat wala ka eh.”
Dacalus added: “Pati personnel mo pinasalita mo pa, minsan dalawa dalawa pa sila… alam mo muntik na akong maglabas dahil bakit nagsasalita man yan sila? They are just wasting time. Dapat ang mga officials lang sana ang nagsasalita doon.”
Gabonada tried to explain that it was the output of the PIO which reported accomplishments the same with other departments, but Dacalus shot back: “That’s why you have to limit your time. I know matalino ka dapat matalino ka masyado dahil naging PIO ka, but you should use your intelligence wisely… pero and nakikita ko, opisina mo lang ang focus mo, para bang you want to be an action star.”
The apparently irate board member said that Gabonada promised to improve performance during the SP’s concurrence to his appointment last year “dahil may kakulangan ka, pero ano ang nangyari during the institutional Christmas party? Lalong lumubha ang problema, hindi mo na siningit ang Sangguniang Panlalawigan.”
Dacalus reminded Gabonada that “all the projects, all the funds” including the budget of information department could not be implemented “without our approval.”
Floorleader Board Member Hernani Duco summed up the sentiments of his colleagues, noting the important role of the legislative department in the development of the province.
From the start, Gabonada did not mention who instructed them to do so but per functional mandate it should be the governor’s alter ego, provincial administrator Atty. Jennifer Namoc Yasol.
Namoc-Yasol along with the heads of six other main departments were called by the SP last week to shed light on the issues on delayed salary releases hitting the SP job order personnel and on delayed payments to board members’ suppliers and other issues like the alleged executive discrimination to the executive department.
But the SP moved to convert last week’s session into a closed-door executive session to make the minutes of said session confidential unless extracted by the SP majority to be made public, per SP’s internal rules of procedure.
Sources said that Governor Rodolfo del Rosario cracked a Liberal Party whip to sweep the issues under the rug.
The SP is all composed of LP and ally Kusog Baryohanon members while Vice Gov. Suaybaguio is running as independent candidate for governor against the governor’s son Cong. Anthony del Rosario.
It turned out it is the allies of the governor who were expressing misgivings over these issues without the prodding of Suaybaguio.
Rumblings over the allegedly discriminating cavalier treatment of the executive department to the legislative department as the former was accordingly dismissive of the presence of SP members started to be heard after the last employees’ Christmas party, the last media Kapihan for 2015 and the provincial government’s New Year’s welcome celebration where only the governor and his son were seen giving prizes and gifts and receiving much public acclaim less the present SP members.
The call to squash the SP’s under-handling by the executive department appears to be the running sentiment shared by the SP members including the vice governor.
As SP rumblings continue on the heels of Aala’s statement that it might be due to the incoming election, pro-Suaybaguio pundits charged there would be more to come in the eventuality of the governorship of the Cong. Del Rosario. (Rural Urban News/Cha Monforte)