A request of Gov. Erico Aumentado for the city council to give utmost priority was treated as "other matters" in the calendar of business when the law making body met the other day.
In the language of the Sangguniang Panglungsud, other matters is in the lower rung of priorities.
In the order of priorities, the kind of request emanating from the office of the governor should have been tackled during the Presiding Officers Time (POT).
Speaking of urgency, the governor wanted the SP to pass two resolutions regarding the turn-over of the CPG drainage mainline and the San Jose outfall.
Taking its own sweet time, the SP is expected to tackle the request as it meets next session.
Aumentado's letter dated Oct. 22 was addressed to Vice Mayor Jose Antonio Veloso and certified "priority".
Asked to comment on the letter, Mayor Dan Lim said it virtually exonerated him of all the blame for the illegal connections and the flooding along CPG north.
In his letter to Veloso, the governor said he is "reiterating my request for you and the Sangguniang Panlungsod to pass a resolution requesting the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to turn over to the City of Tagbilaran the CPG drainage mainline and to authorize (the mayor) Lim to accept the turn-over thereof."
Aumentado said the resolution is a requirement which DPWH Undersecretary Manuel Bonoan required when he conveyed Lim's position.
In his letter to the governor, the mayor made it clear that the city government "will require a formal turnover".
"It is not only a matter of formality as it is made to appear, but for the concerned parties to be accountable for their acts," Lim wrote Aumentado.
The governor agreed that "there is wisdom in the mayor's position".
Aumentado told Veloso that there is a need to comply with Bonoan's "reasonable requirement" to arrive at a "commonly acceptable solution to the issue whose positive resolution can lead us, hopefully, to solve the nagging problem of flooding at the North CPG Avenue area and the controversy of the San Jose outfall".
At the same time, Aumentado appealed to the city council to pass a similar resolution for the DPWH to turn over to the city the San Jose outfall and road improvement project to facilitate the use of the storm drainage facility and the road.
Like the other resolution, the governor said the city legislative should also pass a resolution authorizing the mayor to accept them.
The governor's request is a reversal of Bonoan's previous position where he was extensively quoted by a local radio station and a local weekly that there is no need for a turn-over. - Sunday Post