VM Fernandez: SP wants the truth from dep’t heads
VICE Mayor Belen Fernandez, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), reiterated her call anew to Mayor Benjamin Lim to allow department heads to attend the hearings for Dagupan’s 2011 proposed budget and defend their respective budgets.
Fernandez said the SP wants the department heads must come forward not simply to be present during the hearings “but also to tell the truth”.
The start of the budget hearing has been set on January 18.
The SP chair said the need for department heads to answer questions from the council members has become even more pressing in the absence of an executive-legislative meeting that should have been called prior to the adoption of the budget proposal.
She said had there been an executive-legislative meeting and the lines of communication between the SP and the department heads not cut by the mayor through his ‘gag’ order, the councilors could have been easily given a clearer idea on premises of the budget and the programs and projects of the mayor.
“It does not look good too if Councilor Brian (Lim) thinks he can speak for the city administrator and city treasurer because, although he is the son of the mayor, he is not a department head but a councilor and should be with us,” Fernandez said.
Councilor Lim, minority floor leader and son of the mayor, carped on the SP in a privilege speech last week alleging that politics is the reason why the SP failed to pass the 2011 budget of the city at the end of last year.
Fernandez cited as one example the question as to how the proposed budget of P658 million, which is higher by P70 billion than the P498 budget in 2010, can be funded, a question that can only be answered in full detail by the city treasurer, Romelita Alcantara.
SOCIAL SERVICES
Fernandez said the council would also like to find out why the allocation for social services ballooned by more than 120 per cent, from P49 million in 2010 to P112 million in 2011.
The major part of the appropriation will be spent by the City Social Services Office and questions must necessarily be asked how and where that huge budget will be spent, she pointed out.
“There are questions and these must be answered,” she said.
For his part, Councilor Jesus Canto as chair on the committee on health wondered why the budget for health was reduced from P35 million in 2010 to only P30 million in 2011 despite continuing health problems such as dengue.
“Maraming pang mga punto na gusto naming malaman dahil hindi naman nakadetalyeng mabuti ang ipinalabas nilang budget,” said Fernandez.
On why the hearings were not held immediately at the beginning of the year, Fernandez said the city administration and the city treasurer were not available.
Mata left for Japan to visit his family and was expected to be in Dagupan by January 15. Alcantara, on the other hand, has been on sick leave since December.
WHAT’S THE RUSH?
Fernandez added, “Why are they in a hurry for us to approve the budget without the clarifications from the department heads? Besides the Local Government Code allows us to approve the budget 90 days after the beginning of the fiscal year so we still have enough time to await the presence of the department heads for a thorough review of the budget which is for the good of the city.”
She branded as misinformation talks being peddled by the executive branch that in a re-enacted budget the city employees will not receive their salaries and that the feeding program of the city mayor would be disrupted.
“The employees continue to draw salaries to this day because under a reenacted budget, hindi apektado ang suweldo, statutory obligation and essential operational service of each department. Ang 2010 budget po natin ay puwede nilang gamiting, except po sa capital outlay,” she pointed out.
She belied the claim of Councilor Lim that the budget proposal was submitted to the SP as early as October 15 citing records that only the budget message was submitted that day.
She added that while the executive branch claims that the rest of the budget documents were submitted on October 18 yet the deadline for the submission of the budget was October 16, the SP secretary for reasons only known to him submitted these to the plenary only on November 7.
“Nonetheless the issue on the dates are irrelevant today since none of the department heads attended scheduled sessions on the budget,” Fernandez said.
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