MBTF vetoes 2 ordinances authored by Dagupan SP majority
TWO ordinances authored by the 7-man majority in the Sangguniang Panlungsod were vetoed separately by Mayor Belen Fernandez invoking the rule that no supplemental budget can be passed by the legislative body without passing an annual budget. Dagupan City is operating on a reenacted budget.
Vetoed were Ordinance No. 2260-2023 that grants cash gifts to all senior citizens who attained the age of eighty, eighty-five, ninety, and ninety-five years old, and Ordinance No. 2261-2023 which seeks to increase the allowance of all health workers, nurses, nutrition scholars, day care workers, librarians, barangay service point officers, and tanods in the city of Dagupan.
But while she agreed with the intent of 2261-2023, she said the proposed increase in allowances of the barangay volunteer workers, “ is too low for them to meet the rising cost of commodities, transportation and school expenses.”
The mayor wants the BNS to have P4,000 allowance, not P2,000 as provided in the proposed ordinance; Barangay Nurses, since they are already receiving wage of P15,000 a month, should be given P1,500, same as proposed; BHWs, P4,000 from P1,600; BSPO, P4,000 from P1,500 to P4,000; Barangay Day Care Workers, P2,500, from P2,000; tanods, P1,800 from P1,500; and Barangay Librarians, P4,000 from P1,500.
Fernandez also returned proposed Ordinance No. 2260-2023, since funding requirement provided for under Section 9 thereof requires the DSWD to fund the initial year of implementation of the ordinance LGU Dagupan is in no position to require it from a national government agency.
In both ordinances, Fernandez quoted a DBM letter dated June 5, 2023 that declared the annual budget passed by the majority in the SP on March 28, 2023 as inoperative its entirety, thusly: x x x “it is understood that in the implementation of a reenacted budget , only the annual appropriation for salaries and wages of existing positions, statutory and contractual obligations, and essential operating expenses authorized in the annual and supplemental budgets for the preceding year shall be deemed reenacted x x x”.
Meanwhile, the mayor noted that the minority agreed with the measures authored by the majority councilors without realizing that they have not passed the annual budget of Dagupan, and therefore there can be no fund to the implementation of the two ordinances. (Leonardo Micua)
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