SP’s 7-majority seeks another committee hearing on March 21
AFTER FAILING TO MEET THEIR MARCH 14 DEADLINE
JUST when the people of Dagupan were looking forward to see the 2023 annual budget of Dagupan approved by March 21 and finally end the city’s operations on a reenacted budget, the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s committee on finance, budget and appropriations scheduled another committee hearing after its regular session this week.
This time, the committee, headed by Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia and composed of six other members of the majority, wants Vice Mayor Bryan Kua and City legal Officer and concurrently City Administrator Atty Aurora Valle to appear again before the committee.
Kua and Valle already attended the marathon committee hearing last March 14 from 1:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the company of Mayor Belen Fernandez, Zenaida Sinlao, head of the Senior Citizens Office, Camilo Cayabyan, head of the General Service Office including Luz de Guzman, head executive assistant of Mayor Fernandez and other department heads that was made off limits to the media. (The proceedings of the closed-door meeting were shared to the public by the live online feed of the mayor’s office to make the discussion transparent).
Councilor and Majority Floor Leader Michael Fernandez recalled Erfe-Mejia’s announcement that the committee hearings would end on March 14, whether or not more department heads attend succeeding committee meetings.
Fernandez, who was in that marathon committee as the minority floor leader with no voting rights, questioned the holding of another committee hearing by Erfe-Mejia’s committee when Vice Mayor Kua and Atty Valle already attended the hearing and fielded all questions asked by members of the SP majority.
Councilor Fernandez believes that the holding of another committee hearing is another tactic to further delay the passage of the annual budget and force the city government continue operating under a reenacted budget that will not allow the Belen Fernandez administration to implement its planned programs in 2023.
Fernandez warned the 7-man majority of consequences if it continues to further delay its approval of the budget or move for the rejection of the annual budget belatedly like what it did to the Supplemental Budget 2022 No.1.
“I do believe that DILG has sufficient ground to suspend them (seven majority councilors). But this is up to the sound discretion of the DILG,”, Fernandez told The PUNCH. (Leonardo Micua)
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