By Leonardo Micua

 

AFTER five agonizing days, the Dagupan City hall, still under outgoing Mayor Brian Lim, eventually had a change of heart and agreed to officially receive the 2022 budget ordinance passed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod for his approval… or veto.

Know that the budget ordinance was passed on June 9, but lo and behold! When the budget ordinance was brought to the office of the mayor the next day, the SP staff that hand-carried the document was given the run-around.

They were reportedly told “it’s not me but him and eventually her” that must receive it, forgetting that it is their ministerial duty to receive any communication addressed to their offices. The SP staff had no alternative but to leave seven copies of the document with a cellphone camera rolling while they were serving the document.

The SP staff then executed an affidavit affirming that they indeed left seven copies of the document at the mayor’s office and even presented a video footage attesting what they did. But all these are now water under the bridge as there is now a date on the document that proves it was already officially received.

For this, it’s all’s well that ends well for the  city hall and the Sanggunian during the few remaining days of the Lim administration. With the receipt of the 2022 budget ordinance, the process of legitimizing the approved budget has already started.

The hizzoner has within 10 days to approve or veto the ordinance. If he fails to act on the matter, the same is deemed approved and only becomes operative after its publication.

In case he opts to exercise his veto, the ordinance will go back to the Sanggunian. And  if the majority in that chamber has the number (2/3 of all the members based on the local government code), they can easily override it. Yes, nine members can easily defeat the veto.

If city hall did not have a change of heart, what would you think will happen? Brian Lim will be ostracized by his own people for being still bitter about his crunching defeat in the hands of Belen Fernandez, still playing politics up to the dying days of his administration, torpedoing the programs and projects of the next administration.

He should bear in mind that the 2022 annual city budget is an important legacy he can leave the people of Dagupan (he prepared this budget anyway) with the next city administration as overseer of this fund.

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The national IATF and the provincial government of Cebu just crossed swords over the insistence of the latter to enforce its provincial ordinance making it optional for its citizens to wear face masks, which was made mandatory early on all over the country by IATF.

No less than outgoing DILG Secretary Eduardo Ano said the IATF-promulgated health protocol must prevail over the provincial ordinance but Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia thinks otherwise. She insists that Cebu officials know the situation obtaining on the ground better than the national officials and, therefore, it is the provincial ordinance that should be followed by her people.

As a matter of fact, because of the hullabaloo, the chief of the Cebu Police Provincial Office was already shipped out for enforcing the provincial ordinance. We heard that the OIC who replaced him, will not arrest those without their face masks on the streets and on closed indoor venues but give face masks for them to wear.

Cebu, like Pangasinan and Dagupan City, remains under Alert Level 1 in threat classification, must have its own reasons for discarding the face masks on its people. But it is unfair to all of us Filipinos if the Cebuanos will be the only ones exempted from the IATF protocol just because they have an ordinance in place.

Besides, the pandemic is not yet over as the more deadly and more transmittable Omicron sub variants from other countries have just been detected by our health officials and in no time could spawn another surge of COVID-19 cases in our midst. 

Locally, I have yet to hear anew violators of health protocol being apprehended by the Dagupan police. Last Sunday, I saw a jeepney driver plying the Bonuan area without his face mask on while all his passengers were wearing it. Then when a  passenger, with tattoos on his arms and legs, boarded his jeepney also without a mask on, not a word of caution was heard from the driver. 

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