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A Shakeup in August
By Germelina A. Lacorte
davaotoday.com
Published: Jan. 28, 2006
DAVAO CITY -- On a Friday, Aug. 1, the axe descended upon the heads of 200 city employees in what newspapers here called the "Friday Massacre." No, the employees were not harmed. In fact, they did not even lose their jobs -- they were merely reassigned to other posts because of allegations of corruption.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte made the drastic move after the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released a survey among traders the previous month that said the city was among the 10 most corrupt cities in the Philippines. The top-to-bottom revamp first affected the Business Bureau and the Local Civil Registrar (LCR), the two departments riddled most with corruption, according to Duterte. Later, the revamp moved on to other departments namely, the City Assessors' Office and the City Treasurer's Office.
The sudden revamp caused a momentary confusion. At the local civil registry, for instance, the incoming and outgoing chiefs had agreed to come up with a two-week transition period to allow the new one to secure an authority from the National Statistics Office (NSO) to sign documents. "Otherwise, no marriages, no birth nor marriage certificates can be processed," incoming LCR chief Edelito Domingo told the paper Mindanao Daily Mirror to explain the dilemma.
But this was not what the City Hall revamp had become famous for. It gave the City Council, dominated by Duterte's political group Hugpong, the go signal to revamp the composition of what they refer to as the legislative branch's “juiciest committees.”
As he announced the shakeup at City Hall, Duterte was at the same time telling the councilors to "clean their own backyard," according to another front-page Mirror story.
"Now that I've done my part, I now call the City Council to do their part," Duterte was quoted to have said.
Some councilors interpreted it as a sign that Duterte favored the revamp at the City Council. As early as the first quarter, rumor about an impending City Council revamp had been circulating but nothing came of it. After the SWS survey, almost all councilors agreed that a revamp will clear the City Council of the allegations of corruption. According to the councilors themselves, the crisis at the City Council stemmed from allegations that some members were receiving "grease money" in exchange for the approval of business and development permits.
As a result, Duterte's challenge triggered a series of committee resignations among some councilors to pressure the vice mayor to institute the long-awaited revamp.
Finally, on Aug. 9, the City Council totally overhauled its committees. Six councilors were robbed of the committees that they used to chair, while the majority bloc, led by vice mayor Luis Bonguyan, lorded it over the new committees. "We were made a scapegoat," Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang
would later tell davaotoday.com.
Dayanghirang was among the six accused of receiving bribes in exchange for the approval of some subdivision business permits. Bonguyan, on the other hand, was accused of engaging in questionable deals involving the construction of the roofdeck of the City Council building. (Germelina A. Lacorte/davaotoday.com)
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