“The city needs a strong partnership”
“The city needs a strong partnership”
By Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez
Dagupan City
City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim’s accusation that the members of the Sangguniang Panglunsod are “sitting on their job” in reference to the city budget for 2011 still pending in the council, is uncalled for and an act unbecoming of a public official like him.
I am saddened that the city’s 2010 had to end on a bitter note with his unfair and malicious statement.
Yung sinasabi niya na tamad and SP dahil hindi namin ipinasa ang city budget, gusto naming ipaalala sa mga tao na since September last year we wanted to invite the department heads to our sessions for them to give us an idea how their departments were performing and what the people can expect from the proposed 2011 budget.
We in the city council were dismayed that we could not do this because of the mayor’s ‘gag’ order on the department heads, preventing them from attending sessions and committee hearings of the SP. He flatly refused to give the city’s department heads the permission to attend our hearings.
If we are, indeed, lazy as the mayor irresponsibly described members of the SP, what could have happened was we approved the budget without exercising our power of review. That’s what a lazy council would do.
But no, we have a responsibility to our people — that is to safeguard their money, that was why the budget remains under review and scrutiny.
We have to comply with the process as mandated by law because the city council today does not want a repeat of incidents in the past during Lim’s previous administration wherein Dagupan lost millions in a controversial land purchase, when the city bought a derelict hotel that served no purpose to this day, borrowed money for a dredging machine that did not last long, and when the city’s electric bills piled up and were unpaid, all of which compromised the future of the city and the people.
Sa akin po, marami pong parte ng proposed budget ang dapat pag-aralan and I am hoping that the mayor will finally see the need and the importance of the presence of the department heads during budget hearings when the city council holds sessions en banc. As we all know, department heads of the national government attend budget hearings to defend their respective budgets. It is not left to the Executive Secretary alone to defend the budgets of all the departments. This is how the law sees it, and this is the way we should do it in Dagupan City.
Until Mayor Lim agrees to allow the department heads to attend budget hearings, he cannot expect the city council to pass the measure without the inputs from every office, which are crucial to pass approval on the budget. His proposed budget is P70 million higher than last year’s so necessarily questions need to be asked and it’s the department heads that know their respective daily operations, not the city administrator.
The review of the proposed budget is within the ambit of transparency and I invite the media and other representatives from other sectors to attend and witness the deliberations so they will know and understand what is being proposed to the council for approval.
The mayor is misleading our people with his claim that the city government cannot move without an approved 2011 budget and that the employees will suffer the consequence of not receiving their salaries. What he is not saying is that in a re-enacted budget, the old budget will be in effect for the moment.
Ang ating siyudad ay may pondo. May pondo rin po ito under a reenacted budget sa pagbabayad ng koryente, telephone bills, water bills and all other obligations. So what problem is the mayor’s office talking about?
Since Mayor Lim is asking for a P70 million increase in the budget from last year’s P498 million, it is only prudent on the part of the city council to ask the city treasurer to explain how and where the money be sourced before acting on the budget.
I assure the city employees that their salary increases will be applied retroactively once the 2011 budget is passed, hopefully by the end of January, with the mayor’s cooperation.
It will be recalled that during the earlier term of Lim, the SP passed the budget January 27 and the chairman on finance at that time was Councilor Vlad Mata, now the city administrator. Did he call the city council lazy and sitting on their jobs? No, he didn’t and even then he allowed the department heads to attend the council meetings on the budget.
The city council has worked, collaborated and supported the mayor in many instances including some 50 resolutions last year and ordinances which did not require critical inputs from the department heads (since the mayor cut the council’s access to the department heads). But to act on the budget, kailangan ang department heads.
Nakakalungkot nga na the mayor even wanted the city to abdicate its duty under the Local Government Code to issue franchises to tricycles by vetoing their ordinance and the SP had to assert its duty under the law and went on to override the veto.
Then, Mayor Lim is not being truthful by claiming that there is no budget for his feeding program for malnourished children because the 2011 budget had not been passed. It is a fact that just before the end of the year, the SP passed an P8.5 million supplemental budget, on top of the other P18 million supplemental budget approved by the SP earlier.
The mayor was being unprofessional by alleging that the city council acted quickly on my personal agenda referring to the SP’s endorsement of the CSI hotel project but acts slowly on matters of governance. The hotel project was adopted because my family submitted all requirements and faithfully answered all questions of the city council. I did not have to intercede for my family.
I am still praying, as I am hopeful that Mayor Lim will soon realize that the city council is his partner in development. The city needs and deserves a strong partnership between the executive and the legislative based on mutual respect, sincerity and transparency. Ibigay natin ito sa kanila.
But we will not stoop to his level.
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