Garin, Mondejar 'clash' over SK, Liga reps
Ponte & Trasporto
In what stands anew as yet another historic session in the Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan(SP), members of the 9th Iloilo SP lengthily argued on the presence of its new ex-officio colleagues.
The issue at hand was whether to accept or not Donnel Trasporto as the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) representative and Rodrigo Ponte for the Liga ng mga Barangay. The two took-over the posts vacated by Jeneda Salcedo, former SK provincial federation president and Angelo Briones, former Liga head.
Yet barely had the duo warmed up in their respective seats, Second District Board Member June Mondejar stood up to manifest his objection. Mondejar said Ponte was acceptable for him yet he has a problem in the case of Trasporto.
The ensuing debate focused on Trasporto whose last name majority of the board members present had difficulty saying. Vice Governor Rolex Suplico repeatedly referred to him as "Transporto," Fifth District Board Member Jett Rojas called him "Honorable Transporte" while Board Member Mondejar never got his name right at all.
A total of four recess were called by Suplico while Garin and Mondejar argued on and off the record. Garin to the last minute maintained the regularity of the rule of succession while Mondejar had his position backed by an urgent memorandum from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
According to Mondejar, he was officially told that Trasporto cannot assume office since the hold-over principle is not applicable here. The reason? Trasporto is over-age.
SP Secretary Lorenzo Tubola later came to the rescue pointing out a Local Government Code provision stating otherwise.
Section 423 (b) and Section 437, the SP body was told, state that the case of Trasporto being over-age is not a hindrance for his temporary assumption of office as SK representative to the SP.
In the end, with four recess concluded, the house was divided and divided twice too. Motion after motion after motion continued that ultimately got the house to vote – Trasporto got majority votes while it was only Mondejar with Fourth District Board Member Shalene Palmares-Hidalgo who supported each other.
At exactly 4:25 pm yesterday and some 90 minutes later since the session started, Trasporto was finally officially welcomed and accepted as the rightful SK representative in the Iloilo SP.