BSL’S VETO EXPECTED

THE Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) of Dagupan finally approved last March 16 the 2011 annual budget of the city, but with significant cuts from the proposal submitted Mayor Benjamin Lim.

Contained in Draft Ordinance No. 0-433, the SP-approved budget amounts to P487 million, 15 percent or P81 million lower than the proposed budget of P568 million.

It is even lower by P11 million compared to the 2010 budget of P498 million approved during the term of Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr.

The budget was approved by eight councilors while four opposed.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who chairs the SP, said that even under the difficult circumstances that the city council found itself in she is “happy that the budget has finally been approved” by the council and can now be forwarded to the mayor’s office.

The mayor has 10 days after the receipt of the budget to approve or veto it.

City Administrator Vlad Mata said veto is a possible option that may be taken by Mayor Lim considering the drastic slash in his proposed budget.

A committee report read by Councilor Jeslito Seen, chair of the committee on finance, justified the approval 2011 budget saying, “If the Sangguniang Panlungsod submits, with blind eyes and deaf ears, to the approval of the entire P568,000,000 proposed budget, then Sangguniang Members shall be violating Sec. 1, Art. XI of the 1987 Constitution, which declares that Public Office is a Public Trust.”

SERVING THE PEOPLE

Seen said in making and approving the final budget, the councilors were faced with two options: “either we serve the City Mayor or we serve the people”.

“We choose to serve the people,” the report said.

Aside from Seen, those who signed the committee report were Councilors Alipio Serafin Fernandez, Jesus Canto, Luis Samson Jr., Karlos Liberato Reyna IV, Alvin Coquia, Ma. Librada Fe Reyna and Maybelynb Rose Fernandez, all members of the majority in the SP.

The four councilors who objected to the measure were Brian Lim, head of the minority and son of the mayor; Redford Erfe Mejia; Guillermo Vallejos, Liga ng mga barangay president; and Chester Gonzales, Sangguniang Kabataan president.

Councilor Lim tried to block and delay the approval of the measure by raising questions on the various cuts.  Further discussion was stopped when Councilor Luis Samson Jr. moved for the division of the house.

The rest of the opposing councilors had wanted to raise questions as well but a point of order by Samson citing a house rule that no other matter can be taken up during a special session except the ones specified in the agenda, prevented them.

Nonetheless, the majority in the SP later allowed the members of the minority to deliver their speeches.

OPPOSITION

Vallejos denounced the alleged reduction of the P3.1 million budget for the city’s aid to the 31 barangays to mere P31,000 which translates to P1,000. per barangay only to be told by the majority that the full sum was lumped under the mayor’s office for the city’s development fund as proposed by the mayor.

Samson pointed out that on top of the P3.1 million fund for the barangays, the SP restored P31,000 to each of the 31 barangays under the item “aid to the barangays”.

Lim, meanwhile, protested the deletion of the P2 million intelligence fund under the mayor’s office, the non-inclusion of the budget for the renovation of the Dagupan City Astrodome, and the zero budget for the tourism and cultural heritage offices and the budget for sports development.

Samson explained that those given zero budgets were offices that did not submit their programs of activities despite due notice given them to appear during the last few days of the budget hearing by the committee en banc.

“Let this be a warning to department heads, your Sangguniang Panlungsod cannot act without you submitting your programs of activities,” said Samson, the longest-serving councilor in the city.

NOT TRANSPARENT

Seen lamented the non-participation of several department heads during the SP hearings from Feb.16 onwards despite due notice that “made it very difficult  (for them) to study the budget proposal.”  He cited the “non-transparent funding purposes and the insufficiency of information on the previous and proposed projects, programs and activities of the city.”

Seen also noted that the city mayor failed to input the expected impact of the decision of the Supreme Court reinstating 16 new cities that resulted in lower Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) for all cities.

At the same time, the committee report said the additional appropriation of more than P40 million for the hiring the mayor’s office of more than 500 emergency workers was not approved entirely because it is in violation of Sec. 325, paragraph a, of the Local Government Code.

The provision states: “The total appropriations, whether annual or supplemental, for personal services of a local government unit for one fiscal year shall not exceed forty five percent (45%) in the case of first to third class cities x x x of the total annual income from regular sources realized in the preceeding fiscal year.”

The SP review of the budget, which started January 16, uncovered numerous discrepancies in the proposal and the City Mayor’s Office had to be asked to amend the proposal five times.—LM

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