Mangled truth
The introduction made in the Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., multi-volume work called Great Books by modern scholars collaborating in studying the realm of truth got my interest. A line specially caught my attention. It read: "To speak truthfully, we must make our speech conform to our thought, we must say that something is the case if we think it is, or that it is not, if we think it is not. If we deliberately say "is" when we think is not, or say "is not" when we think it is, we lie." This is found in volume II, page 727, Second edition.
I associate that statement when I came across an opinion made by a high ranking official of a government agency. His opinion was contained in a letter that his office sent to the Sanggunian Panlungsod of the City of Cebu and because it had to do with an interest in our city, I felt that even if I am just a private citizen, I was going to be affected thereby. By the way, the title affixed to the position of the "opinion maker" is dignifying for it indicates a high responsibility in unlocking Gordian legal knots. His opinions are supposed to hold sway in government transactions. By reason of my insignificance compared to his prominence, I shudder at the thought that I might step on his hallowed toes in writing this article today.
Was his opinion true? Did he render it truthfully? When the letter was taken up by the city council, it appeared that the majority of the councilors took the opinion as gospel truth. The newspaper account of the session of the city sanggunian reported of no one councilor, from the opposing political sides, ever examined whether the high official spoke the truth.
Reports had it that the opinion revolved around the legal truism that a resolution cannot supersede an ordinance. The opinion maker premised his thought on that accepted difference between a resolution and an ordinance. Our councilors know that a resolution is generally but an expression of sentiment. It is usually temporary for it is intended for a fleeting event like expressing grief to the passing of an honorable person in the community.
An ordinance, on the other hand, is the term normally given to a law passed by local legislative bodies like the sanggunian. It is effective for an indefinite period of time into the future and may lose effectivity when modified, amended or repealed.
The opinion maker posits that when the city council passed Resolution No. 13-0418-2014, which was a resolution authorizing His Honor, Cebu City Mayor Michael L. Rama, to sell certain portions of the South Road Properties, that resolution did not supersede Ordinance No. 2332, entitled "An Ordinance Protecting The South Road Properties And Its Stakeholders From Unlawful and Unauthorized Transactions And Dealings". Again, because a resolution cannot supersede an ordinance.
Ordinance No. 2332, speaks of the truth. Section 3 provides that: Absent a specific prior approval from the Sangguniang Panlungsod of the City of Cebu, no person, employee or official of the City of Cebu, including without limitation, the Mayor of the City of Cebu and/or the Bids and Awards Committee is authorized to: (a) sell, dispose, transfer or otherwise convey any of the properties of the South Road Properties xxx".
The opening clause "absent a specific prior approval from the Sangguniang Panlungsod" is revealing. This part of section 3 requires that no portion of the SRP may be sold by, among other persons, the mayor unless there is a prior authority of the city council. In other words, the city mayor may deal with the SRP only when given authority by the city council.
That was what the city council precisely did when it passed Resolution No. 13-0418-2014. The sanggunian specified in that resolution that a portion of the SRP may be sold and the council authorized the mayor to deal said properties. That is the truth. Far from superseding Ordinance No. 2332, the subject resolution, by specifying what portion of the SRP may be sold, breathed its life from Section 3 of Ordinance 2332 and therefore, it, in fact, reinforced the said ordinance.
It is painful for me a private citizen of this city to realize that the majority of the city council never took the simple act of verifying whether the opinion of the high strung government official was truthful or not. Kaluoy natong mga Cebuano!
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