READY FOR SP VETO OVERRIDE

GIVE me a reason.

MAYOR Benjamin Lim, who is likely to veto some provisions of the approved 2011 budget for Dagupan City, has acknowledged that the Sangguniang Panlungsod could very well override his veto but sought justification from the council members should they decide to do so.

“If they have to override it, it has to be with a reason. I am not saying that they don’t have the power to override. In fact, to override it, they need a two-thirds vote,” Lim said in a statement issued to the media.

The statement quoted the mayor as having said that he cannot understand the logic and the thinking of the SP in approving the revenue target of more than 600 million and then passed a budget of P487 million, which is lower than the 2010 budget.”

“Ang Dagupan ba ay paurong?” the statement read.

The SP slashed some items of the proposed budget that the councilors found questionable and could not be explained when the department heads in the city hall did not appear during the budget hearings.

“Totoo ba ito? Nagpapakatotoo ba kayo?,” the combative mayor was again quoted as having asked rhetorically in the direction of the majority members of the SP and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez.

“Pinagbabayad natin ang mga kababayan natin ng malaking buwis, nakakakolekta tayo ng mas malaking koleksion compared to the previous years at sasabihin natin sa kanila na itabi natin ito para meron tayong paghahatian? Para meron tayong savings? Ang importante dito, kung ano ang kinita mo, dapat gastusin mo lahat yun para sa serbisyo,” Lim continued.

“If they are telling us that at least we have a savings, then ang nagsabi niyan ay tanga,” said Lim but he, however, expressed hope that the SP will not override some parts of the budget he is going to veto and asked each of the city councilors “to exercise independence and not to be dictated upon by someone else’s whims and caprices.”

The combative tone of Mayor Lim in the city hall’s press release, however, was in sharp contrast to the more conciliatory tone of City Administrator Vladimir Mata who appeared in the KBP forum last week to confirm that the mayor was contemplating “partial” veto.

Should the SP override the mayor’s veto, Mata said Lim intends to appeal to the council members’ “sense of duty”.

“That is why we are explaining to them (councilors) the repercussion and the implication of a slashed budget to the delivery of service to our city mates. I hope they will be able to understand it and appreciate the value of our programs and projects,” Mata said.

He added that they have already started “reaching out” to the councilors “so that they can understand the situation of slashed budget”.

Asked if the mayor is considering asking for a supplemental budget to fill in the slashed amount, Mata said Lim would like to avoid this if possible as the executive branch believes that “good governance is good planning and good budgeting”.

The mayor, Mata said, is also open to hold another executive-legislative meeting to discuss the approved budget.

Meanwhile Lim warned that should the slashed budget become final, the executive branch will have to “shelve temporarily some of the programs” and exercise “belt tightening and retrenchment will definitely be a part of it”.

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