Grieving over the gagging of Davide

While we lament the marginalization of Vice Mayor Mike Rama in Cebu City, on this day of the dead I grieve the gagging of Vice Governor Jun Jun Davide III in the province. It’s a cruel and unusual punishment for him who has done nothing illegal. This gagging violates the very meaning of the word Sanggunian. It’s obnoxious to the fundamental norms of any democracy. This has never been done even under martial law.

This gagging was made through a new rules of procedure passed by majority of the Provincial Board. It’s totally unprecedented, never been done in all the more than 80 provinces all over the Philippines. It’s only now and, alas, against a lawyer.

It’s equivalent to Brutus preventing Caesar from speaking in the Roman Senate. Like the US Congress preventing the speaker from talking. Davide is the only speaker who cannot speak, chair any committee, or author any ordinance or resolution. Allegedly, to preserve his neutrality. What neutrality, is there such a thing in a political body composed of varying parties? It’s my humble view that such a procedure may be a blatant deviation from the letter and spirit of the Local Government Code, RA 7160, particularly Chapter III, Sections 48, 49, and 50. The procedure is “ultra vires,” beyond the powers of the board to pass. It’s Davide’s duty to ask the Supreme Court to nullify it. I may consult chief justices Diosdado Peralta and Luke Bersamin, my neighbors, on the matter.

The unkindest cut of all, to borrow Shakespeare's lament, the board has prohibited Davide from speaking his mind on matters under consideration. On this day for the dead, I refuse to believe democracy has died in the Provincial Board. It’s my humble opinion that the said rules can be questioned on the fundamental issue of constitutionality. Freedom of expression is a basic and essential principle embedded in any civilized society, recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is no legislative body in the world that has ever passed a rule as restrictive as that.

Under Article 19, everyone has the right to hold opinion without interference, and everyone shall have the freedom of expression. This right shall include the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers. To gag a member of a deliberative body is virtually to make him a rubber stamp and a ceremonial puppet without voice. The majority only allows Davide to bang the gavel to open the session, close his mouth, then bang it again to adjourn. The barangay captain of Colawin and the vice mayor of Argao have more powers. Davide can only break a tie, but a tie will never happen in a body dominated by a majority. I wonder what former chief justice Davide Jr. and Bersamin have to say on the matter.

It was Voltaire who said: I may disapprove of what you say but I shall defend till death your right to say it. I am sad that in Cebu, the vice governor's right to say his piece has already died in, of all places, the very legislative body he presides. Very sad. Calling for any Voltaire to come forward in shining armor.