ONLY four councilors have showed up during thE Bacolod City Council's special session on Monday which would have tackled the request of Acting Bacolod Mayor Greg Gasataya to grant authority to Acting City Administrator Goldwyn Nifras as co-signatory of checks issued by the City Government. These are Councilors Em Ang, Caesar Distrito, Roberto Rojas and Archie Baribar. The meeting, presided by Acting Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, started at about 3:45 p.m. and was adjourned before 4 p.m. Gasataya recalled that there was supposed to be an executive-legislative caucus Wednesday but this was cancelled at the last minute. The councilors who were absent, and are allied with Puentevella, claimed that they had a prior appointment with suspended Mayor Monico Puentevella. City Council's secretary Vicente Petierre said he had sent out Notices to the respective offices of the councilors Friday afternoon and also made a follow-up by texting them. Petierre said Councilor Ana Marie Palermo claimed that she was sick, Councilor Claudio Puentevella informed him that he was in Manila, Councilor Sonya Verdeflor had a court hearing to attend in Himamaylan, and Councilor Alex Paglumotan texted him that he cannot attend the special session. The request of Gasataya to authorize Nifras as co-signatory of checks has been pending for almost three weeks already and the special session yesterday was the fourth time his request was deferred by the SP. Gasataya said Nifras’s authority is urgent as the city’s financial obligations particularly to its regular employees, utility bills which are chargeable to Land Bank of the Philippines and also the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) withholding tax have a deadline of December 10. "These are reasons why we need the SP (City Council) action on the matter for us to catch up with those financial obligations of the city," he said. By CARLA N. CANET
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