WITH ONLY 4 MAJORITY MEMBERS PRESENT

 

IN a strategic move, the minority bloc in the Sangguniang Panlungsod took advantage of the absence of three majority councilors, who were on personal leave, and finally passed the shelved P1.3 billion annual budget of Dagupan for 2023.

With five members from the minority present and participating in the session, they moved to approve the budget, ending the city’s financial crisis.

Present in the session hall were Minority Leader Michael Fernandez, Jeslito Seen, Dennis Canto, Marcelino Fernandez and Joshua Bugayong. All members of the minority bloc. Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, was also present to preside over the proceedings.

Only Councilors Librada Macalanda, Alvin Coquia, Marilou Fernandez and Redford Erfe-Mejia of the majority bloc attended the session virtually via zoom.

Councilors Celia Lim, her daughter Irene Acosta-Lim and Alfie Fernandez had filed leaves of absences for their separate trips to the United States.

The first opportunity to outvote the members of the majority was the resolution authorizing Mayor Belen Fernandez to sign a usufruct agreement with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) for the construction of a P25 million building at Perez Market. Councilor Erfe-Mejia attempted to bloc the resolution by requiring committee hearing, but when a call for the division of the chamber was made, it resulted in a 5-4 vote in favor of the minority.

Then Councilor Michael Fernandez moved to include Draft Ordinance 0835, which sought to enact the 2023 annual budget, on the session’s agenda. Which Mayor Fernandez certified the draft ordinance as urgent. The majority bloc sought to bloc the move but was outvoted, 5-4 by the minority bloc.

It will be recalled that the majority bloc of seven persistently outvoted the minority bloc’s five members in moves to pass the 2023 budget submitted by the city mayor, effectively suspending implementation of projects and programs approved by the Local Development Council in 2022. (Leonardo Micua)

No violations in passage of 2023 ordinance — Minority leader

MINORITY Floor Leader Michael Fernandez of the Dagupan Sanggunian maintains no law was violated in passing Appropriations Ordinance No.0-835 or the P1.3 billion annual budget, contrary to the claim of the majority bloc.

“What was violated was the failure of the sanggunian to pass it for a long time,” Fernandez said

Speaking to newsmen shortly after the approval of the P1.3 billion 2023 annual budget, Fernandez said  what was done was actually in accordance with the instruction of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Recall that DBM returned the Appropriations Ordinance enacted by the majority bloc in March after finding it “inoperative in its entirety” but without prejudice to the introduction of a new appropriations ordinance, Fernandez said.

Mayor Belen Fernandez resubmitted the P1.3 billion appropriations ordinance to the Sangguniang Panlungsod which was placed in the agenda, only to be deleted by the seven-man majority in the next session of the SP despite earlier assurances it would be calendared for.

“On September 26 regular session I moved that it be included in the agenda and it was adopted by the Sanggunian as a collegial body,” Fernandez said.

During the September 26 session, three members of the majority were traveling overseas and the four who stayed behind were participating on line.

Fernandez reminded newsmen the Annual Investment Plan as well as all the Integral Plans that should form part of the annual budget were already approved and passed in March.

As to the voting on the appropriations ordinance, the DILG said it can be adopted by just a simple majority or in that session, 5-4, Fernandez said refuting the claim of the majority bloc.

But technically, it was not 5-4, Fernandez said, because during the objection period, nobody from the majority raised any objection, which means all voted for the passage of the ordinance. (Leonardo Micua)

PERSONNEL SELECTION BOARD IN PLACE

City hall employees can begin to draw increases

THE resolution seeking the creation of the Personnel Selection Board (PSB) in the city as required by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) but was shelved by the majority bloc in the Dagupan sanggunian was also passed when the budget of Dagupan was passed.

Councilor and Minority Floor Leader Michael Fernandez moved for the passage of the resolution creating the PSB, which was shelved by the Committee on Civil Service and Public Accountability chaired by Councilor Alfie Fernandez even after conducting a series of committee hearings on closed doors.

Councilor Marcelino Fernandez, the city’s President of the Liga ng mga Barangay, said passage of the resolution creating the PSB is a big boon to the city government and to its employees.

“Noong nakita namin na okay na yong 2023 annual budget, isinunod namin yong PSB,” said Liga president Fernandez in a news conference in the afternoon of September 26.

“It is because we see with our own eyes the unending sacrifices of our employees, from Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. who we know are qualified yet they cannot be promoted in the absence of a  PSB,” he added.

With the PSB, the positions of those who retired can already be filled up, and the employees below them will now have a chance to rise from their present positions, while the newly retired employees can be paid their full retirement benefits.

The last development at the committee was to hear from Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, who was present in the hearing called for his presence but the chairman of the committee was not around and his vice chairman refused to convene the hearing in behalf of the chairman.

Nothing was heard of from that committee since although Councilor Alfie Fernandez was present in subsequent sessions of the Sanggunian.

The regular employees will also be eventually paid their salary differentials under the fourth and last trance of the Salary Standardization Law, which were denied of them in the absence of an approved annual budget.  (Leonardo Micua)

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