Dad blames gag order
“WE should stop politicking”.
This was the appeal of Dagupan Councilor Jeslito Seen in reaction to Mayor Benjamin Lim’s outburst accusing the council members of negligence for refusing to approve the city’s budget for 2011.
Seen, chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on finance, branded the mayor’s charge accusing the members of the council of “laziness, being irresponsible and callous” for not approving his proposed P568 million budget.
He countered that that the budget can still be passed when the council start the deliberation of the city budget on January 9 and provided the council gets some cooperation from the mayor.
“If I remember it right, noong panahon ng ating city administrator (Vladimir Mata) as chairman of the committee on finance, na-approve ang budget ng January 27.”
He referred to the period when Mata was still a city councilor when Lim was serving his first term.
Seen also reiterated the sentiment of Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez who earlier bewailed the continued effects of the “gag order” of the Lim administration as the stumbling block for the early adoption of the budget.
The “gag order” was issued by the mayor to department heads preventing them from attending the sessions and or committee hearings of the SP.
“Alisin natin ang pamumulitika,” said Seen in reference to Lim’s who chided the city council for what he called the delay in the approval of the city budget.
“If not for that, deliberations would have been faster and more enlightened as budgets need to be studied carefully,” he added
Seen reiterated his previous statement that the SP is not the rubberstamp of neither the mayor nor of the vice mayor.
He pointed out that under a reenacted budget there should be no disruption in the salaries and wages of employees, including operational expenses and contractual obligations of the city.
“Actually, even the increased benefits of city employees tuloy na tuloy po yon, kasi retroactive po yan pag na-approve na ang budget,” he said.
He cited the budget for traffic maintenance, waste management among others that need to be studied and debated thoroughly.
The councilor said that without the presence of the department heads, the council cannot fully appreciate and decide prudently on the requested budget.
