FOLLOWING two most recent major fires that hit Dagupan City, Councilor and Minority Floor Leader Michael Fernandez again appealed to the majority bloc in the Sangguniang Panlungsod to pass the more than P500-million Supplemental Budget No. 2 to enable the city to purchase an additional firetruck, but failed.

In his privilege speech on Tuesday, Fernandez said Supplemental Budget No. 2 held hostage by the majority councilors since March this year includes an allocation of P6.5 million for the purchase of one additional fire truck.

One of the two fires last week broke out Sunday night and raged on for 12 hours until Monday morning. The Bureau of Fire Protection in Dagupan was assisted by fire volunteers from Panda, USATV, Guanzon and from adjacent towns.

He said the existing fire truck of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office could not do the work of firefighting.

Mayor Belen Fernandez had long issued a Certificate of Urgency for the passage of the measure but the seven councilors who rejected the certificate citing their need to review more documents, i.e., profiles of various infrastructure projects proposed for construction.

In citing the urgency, the mayor asked for its passage on September 20, but this was flatly ignored.

Councilor Fernandez said the non-passage past the deadline, will necessitate the inclusion of the items in the in the proposed 2025 annual budget of Dagupan. (Leonardo Micua) 

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