SP fails to tackle Belleza measure

CEBU, Philippines - After four consecutive sessions, the Talisay City Council has still to tackle the proposed Gender and Development (GAD) Code of the city.

Yesterday, the proposal was referred to the Commission on Audit and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for study.

With this, the proposal’s author, Councilor Shirley Belleza, former chairman on council committee on Women, Children and Family, described the recent move as another of the administration party’s “delaying tactics.” “What they are doing to the GAD ordinance now is obviously ridiculous. It’s pure and simple delaying tactics to derail its approval,” said Belleza. It was on its March 2 session when the council was supposed to deliberate the proposed GAD ordinance, but a day before that Vice Mayor Alan Bucao, the presiding officer, issued a cancellation of the session for reason that there are five Tuesdays in March, and they are only required to hold four sessions in a month.

The next Tuesday, March 9, the proposal was filed again by Belleza, but the session was cancelled for the second time after majority of the councilors did not show up.

And the week after that, the administration councilors, which compose the entire body, voted to relinquish themselves of their committee chairmanships to give them more time to campaign for their reelection.

In the process, although she is not running for any post in the May 10 elections, Belleza was also stripped of all her committees including the Women, Children and Family, which endorses the GAD code ordinance. Last week, sensing that her fellow administration councilors were slowly stripping her of her powers in the council reportedly because of her support for former Vice Mayor Aberdovey Belleza’s candidacy instead of the administration’s bet, the lady councilor delivered a privilege speech, calling the councilors “anti-women” for repeatedly taking for granted her proposed ordinance that should have given protection and more benefits to the city’s weaker sex. In last week’s session, Belleza however agreed to give them another week to study her proposal, including her proposed city ordinance implementing the Barangay Health Workers Benefit and Incentives Act despite the fact that it has been there for more than a year already. The GAD ordinance, according to Belleza, aims to strengthen the city’s GAD focal persons, one in each of its 22 barangays. 

It also provides benefits to these focal persons, whom, she said, are giving their time and effort with less compensation. Allegedly, the administration councilors now see Belleza as someone on the other side of the fence, as her husband is running under the opposition camp, the Liberal Party. According to a source who refused to be named, the councilors believe that Belleza is using her committees to get funding for the campaign of her husband’s party. This was not however confirmed by the councilors as according to them the move to relinquish their chairmanships of their committees was not to single out the lady councilor, since all of them were also stripped of chairmanships. Since Bucao is now the chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Belleza’s GAD ordinance, like all the rest of the proposals, was referred him, and in the process, it was referred to COA and DILG reportedly because it involves money. – Liv G. Campo   FREEMAN NEWS)