AFTER DELAYED APPROVAL OF 2023 APPROPRIATIONS ORDINANCE

MAYOR Belen Fernandez is set to recommend a P1.385 billion budget for the city government for the year 2024.

The mayor made the announcement after the Dagupan’s Local Development Council (LDC) approved the mayor’s presentation of the proposed annual budget of Dagupan for the year 2024.

The proposed P1.385 billion budget for 2024 is only P85 million higher than the approved budget for 2023.

The LDC’s endorsed budget will be transmitted to the Sangguniang Panlungsod for usual deliberation on October 15 as mandated by the Local Government Code.

The projected sources for the proposed P1.385 billion budget will be: P387,800,000 cash,  P206,100,000 local income, P10 million miscellaneous, and P775,335,000 National Tax Allotment.

Additionally, the LDC approved the P2.018,665,440 Annual Investment Plan for 2024, and  Supplemental Budget No. 2 for the year 2023, amounting to more than P339,359,356.50.

Funds for these will be drawn from P384,171,143 surplus and savings for Fiscal Year 2022, as well as P441,246,000 from reversion of programs and projects and continuing balances for CY 2017 and 2018.

These funds will be allocated for 45 projects, many of which were included in Supplemental Budget No. 1 submitted by Mayor Fernandez to the city council last year but was denied by the majority bloc. The motion for Supplemental Budget No. 2 was proposed by Francisco Arzadon of the Dagupan People’s Council and was seconded and eventually approved by the body.

The LDC meeting, held at the Emerald Hall of CSI Stadia, chaired by Mayor Fernandez was attended by barangay chairpersons, city department heads (including City Legal Officer Aurora Valle), representatives of Dagupan’s people’s council led by Atty. Liberato Reyna Jr., representatives from public utilities operating in Dagupan, as well as officials from the PNP, Maritime Police, Philippine Coast Guard, and the Philippine Navy. City councilors Michael Fernandez, Jeslito Seen, Dennis Canto, Marcelino Fernandez, and Joshua Bugayong were also present. (Leonardo Micua)

No irregularities in city budget passage, say

DEFINITELY, nothing irregular in the passage of the 2023 budget.

This was asserted by Minority Floor leader Michael Fernandez when he refuted the claim of the majority bloc at the Sangguniang Panlungsod that the passage of Dagupan’s 2023 annual budget on September 26 was ‘irregular.’

Councilor Fernandez addressed the issue during the city council’s October 3 regular session of the city council, when Councilor Alvin Coquia cited the violation of the council’s Internal Rules and Procedures (IRP).

Coquia argued that the process taken to pass Draft Ordinance 835, the city’s budget ordinance, did not conform to the SP’s IRP, specifically, that the IRP limits the measures discussed by the plenary to those listed in the agenda.

Fernandez described the argument as flawed and cited a legal opinion from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) stating that Adopted Rules or IRPs of local legislatures rank fourth in the hierarchy of sources for Parliamentary Procedure.’

This DILG opinion quoted rom letters sent to council members on March 3, 2022, stressed that the SP may adopt its IRP but that it ‘should not contradict judicial decisions, the Local Government Code, and the 1987 Constitution,’ as the latter sources hold higher priority.

Other irregularities cited by Councilor Coquia were: 1) It did not go through the finance committee, 2) Three councilors were prevented from voting, 3) It was not included in the agenda, and 4) Issues related to Vice Mayor Kua’s process.

In response, Councilor Fernandez pointed out that the three councilors —Celia Lim, her daughter Irene Lim-Acosta, and Alipio Serafin Fernandez—were absent as they were on vacation leave abroad, hence, they could not vote.

Fernandez also cited Article 107, Paragraph ‘D’ in the IRR of the Local Government Code: “No ordinance or resolution shall be considered on the second reading in a regular meeting unless it is reported out by the proper committee to which it was referred or certified as urgent by the local chief executive” to prove that the passage didn’t require a committee report.

SP Secretary Ryan Ravanzo affirmed that Mayor Belen Fernandez certified the Appropriations Ordinance as urgent twice.

Fernandez also pointed out that no member of the majority raised objections or amendments during the voting process.

Two other councilors, Librada Reyna-Macalanda and Redford Erfe-Mejia, delivered speeches calling out Vice Mayor Bryan Kua and City Secretary Ryan Ravanzo, accusing them of conspiring with the minority to pass the budget.

Tension in the session hall eased when Councilor Celia Lim said the SP majority sent letters separately to the regional directors of DILG and DBM, seeking their legal opinion on the budget’s passage.

Mayor Fernandez signed the 2023 annual budget on October 5 and sent a copy to the Department of Budget regional office for review. (Leonardo Micua)

Ex-councilors to Dagupan majority dads: ‘End Obstructionism’

SUPPORT the budget of city mayor for the benefit of the city.

This was the unsolicited advice of two former Dagupan city councilors to the seven majority members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP).

In an interview with The PUNCH, both former councilors, Luis Samson Jr. and Jose Netu Tamayo, recalled their history of cooperation with previous mayors, including Mayor Brian Lim, a known political rival of incumbent Belen Fernandez.

They believe that the prolonged stalemate over the annual city budget could have been averted if the opposition majority had played their roles as “statesmen rather than obstructionists” during the administration of Mayor Fernandez. They emphasized the importance of fiscalization and checks and balances, stating that these are the roles of the opposition, rather than obstructionism.

Samson recalled that during the younger Lim’s tenure as Mayor from 2019 to 2022, his group ‘supported’ the Mayor. Their bloc in the council was allied with Mayor Fernandez who just finished a mayoralty term then, also held a strong majority in the chamber with a 9-3 advantage.

“Why can’t the present majority in the Sanggunian do the same and work for the sake of the people of Dagupan City, especially since the election is still far away?” Samson, who was elected for multi-terms as city councilor, asked

But he conceded that in all legislative bodies, it is played by the numbers and this, he added, is understandable.

Samson said this was the reason why when three of the seven majority members went overseas, the five-man minority was able to pass the long delayed budget as the majority members who stayed behind lacked numbers.

Former Councilor Tamayo pointed out the negative impact of the strong resistance of the current majority in the council to the allocation of P200 million aimed at funding scholarships for some 5,000 “poor but deserving students.” They rejected it even though such a line item already existed in previous budget ordinances,” he said.

Tamayo concluded by saying that the scholarship program benefits underprivileged families who cannot afford to send their children to college and complete their degrees. “It is unthinkable that the majority is obstructing this when it is provided for by a validly passed city ordinance,” Tamayo emphasized. (Leonardo Micua)

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