Zulueta lashes at Antiquiera anew
Neophyte city councilor Eldrid Antiquiera recently voiced his "frustration" over the non-attendance of several of his colleagues in the hearings of the Committee of the Whole which he chairs that is looking into alleged irregularities on the award of the publication contract for the city's newly-amended Revenue Code. His vice-chairman, veteran legislator Councilor Perla Zulueta, may well provide an explanation to the purported "boycott" of the proceedings of their fellow city dads.
According to Zulueta, Antiquiera cannot really blame the others for not attending the committee hearings that were scheduled February 18 and March 3 "because they could be busy with work related to their own committees."
"Besides, their schedules were apparently not considered when the dates of the hearings were set. I, for one, attended the first hearing and was at the Sangguniang Panlungsod Conference Room by 2 p.m. for the second hearing but I decided to leave when Councilor Antiquiera failed to show up by 2:30 p.m. Had he called me up earlier to tell me he would be late, I could have waited. I don't like making people wait, considering those we invited to the hearing are all busy people," the lady councilor from Molo averred.
Aside from Zulueta, Kagawad Jeffrey Ganzon was also at the SP conference room by 2 p.m. but also left after Antiquiera failed to show up on time.
'He volunteered'
Asked to comment on Antiquiera's remark that he cannot understand why his colleagues are "no-shows" in the Committee of the Whole's hearings when they unanimously elected him to head the said investigation, Zulueta reminded the former that it was him who volunteered to do the job and not the other way around.
"Let me remind Councilor Antiquiera that we did not elect him to head the said committee; he actually volunteered himself to do it during our regular session of January 20 after Councilor Jose Espinosa III, who chairs the Committee on Good Government, declined to lead the investigation on the matter. To further refresh his memory, it was during the same session when he also volunteered to head the investigation on the alleged wholesale purchase of Dinagyang tickets at the Freedom Grandstand," she said.
"You know, I have also been chairperson of the ad hoc committee that looked into alleged irregularities in the City Engineer's Office but I never encountered the problems that Councilor Antiquiera is experiencing now with the Committee of the Whole. Perhaps the reason was that back then, members of the Sanggunian were asked if they want to be members of the committee, which would somehow guarantee their attendance and participation to the hearings. Sadly, that is not the case with Antiquiera's committee now," Zulueta lengthily explained.
'Not enough'
Pressed on whether she thinks the information culled from the two hearings are already enough for the committee to make an adequate report on the alleged irregularity, the four-termer city legislator said she honestly don't think so.
"There are so many questions that are left unasked. There are so many things that we need to know before we can even attempt to make a sensible report on the alleged irregularity. We haven't even heard the publisher of Journal Visayas personally justify the award of the P300,000 publication contract to his newspaper. For me, it is pointless to push through with the investigation without this Giovanni Vaay appearing before the committee," Zulueta said in conclusion.