LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, March 16 (PNA) — Tardiness has caught up with some members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) in Pangasinan when the legislative body failed to muster a quorum in its regular session on March 16 as some of them came to the session hall too late.
Vice Governor and SP presiding officer Jose Ferdinand Calimlim already banged the gable at 10 a.m., after a customary roll call to signify lack of quorum when most members of the body finally arrived.
That was the second roll call for the day, the first of which was at 9:30 a.m.
Sixth District Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr. asked Calimlim to declare that the SP failed to muster a quorum after the second roll call.
Bince was exasperated as he was the first SP member to show up in the session hall although among his colleagues, he comes from the farthest municipality of Pangasinan from Lingayen.
The board member, the most veteran among the present crop of provincial legislators, comes from the eastern town of Rosales, about two-and-a-half hour drive to the provincial capitol of Lingayen.
That was also the second time that Bince raised a complaint regarding the tardiness of his colleagues. The first was last March 2 when he almost delivered a privilege speech lambasting them for tardiness.
The following session, he presented a resolution asking a reorganization in the SP, an issue which resulted in the holding of an executive session by the body.
Bince also deplored the absence of many of SP members from committee hearings, which are also an equally important function of legislators, aside from attending sessions. (PNA)