City councilors deny walking out of session
ROXAS CITY – Majority city councilors here denied that they walked out of last Thursday's session contrary to the allegation of Vice Mayor Ronnie Dadivas.
City Councilor Rolando Ignacio told The News Today (TNT) that they went outside the session hall just to relax after Vice Mayor Dadivas ignored their plea to have a two-minute recess.
It was learned that a heated argument occurred between Dadivas and some members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod over the shooting incident at the Teodoro Arcenas Trade Center (TATC) that killed two kids and wounded several others.
Mr. Salvador Bartocillo, manager of slaughter house and head of TATC, appeared in the session as resource person.
Ignacio said that Dadivas threw irrelevant questions on Bartocillo which consumed their time. The councilors then called the attention of Dadivas that he was going out of order.
Ignacio was supported by councilors Dennis Altobano, Ramon Albar, and Rogelio Delfin.
The city councilors also accused Dadivas of shutting down their microphones during the heated argument.
Meanwhile, Dadivas told TNT that the city councilors were just overreacting.
"They themselves acted unbecoming of a public officials. They cannot impose what they want just because they have the number. Majority is not always right and is so dangerous when tyranny of number is used in the council," Dadivas said in a text message.
To recall, this is the third time that the city council and Dadivas had been at odds. The first was when majority of the members accused the vice mayor of abusing his discretion as presiding officer over internal rules and the second one was the vice mayor's initiative to create a committee to investigate 1st district Cong. Antonio del Rosario over certain issues.