Not a few Dumaguitnons are keenly keeping track of the developments at the City Council, where the hot issue of the Annual Investment Plan has been debated repeatedly for the last two sessions.
The AIP is still in the air, somewhere between the City Council and the City Development Council.
The City Council had returned the proposed AIP to the City Development Council last December, with some recommendations.
The ball is now with the CDC, as the City Council will only recognize an explicit unambiguous action of the reconvened CDC (comprising the barangay captains, the City department heads, and some NGOs like the People’s Development Council).
The sessions are streamed live every Tuesday morning on the Sanggunian Panlunsod’s Facebook wall. From previous sessions of the City Council that sometimes did not prompt comments nor shares on social media, last week’s session generated at least 123 comments and 16 shares.
For social media experts, these responses in terms of comments and shares, are a powerful statement.
Science has proven that comments from the public actually have the power to change people’s minds. It may not really be logical, but it does have an impact. As of Tuesday, most of the comments were calling on the City Council to just approve the AIP to get it over and done with.
The reality, however, is that the Councilors calling for the approval of the AIP are in the minority. Thus, the AIP has practically no chance of being approved without a clear action by the CDC.
Call it legalistic or call it political, but it is what it is.
There have also been instances when both the executive and legislative branches would actually come to an agreement whenever they would meet outside of their official duties, away from the skeptical eyes of the public. Councilor TonyRems Remollo cited a luncheon last December where, after they met with the Mayor, both sides eventually agreed on certain issues.
Surely, this could happen again if both sides could meet each other halfway.
Otherwise, the City’s development would continue to be hostaged by this impasse, no matter how entertaining it may be.
