By Leonardo Micua

 

THE seven-man Sanggunian Panlungsod majority assumed the rule of an executioner by chopping off the heads of over 700 job order employees and denied hundreds of  frontliners of their monthly allowances, and literally grounding the public service in the city of Dagupan to a halt. For this, the seven councilors are not just scorned by the residents but are also facing a possible class suit for their unwarranted actions.

The seven majority councilors did all that simply because they did not receive the list of JOEs and frontliners they demanded from the mayor’s office, a reason that will not stand before the Ombudsman if sued individually by those affected for their capricious and whimsical acts.

Above all, many hungry mouths were deprived of their food on the table because of the indiscretion and tyranny of the majority that terminated thousands of employees when they deleted allotted funds for JOEs assigned in every office.

We heard that the terminated JOEs and front liners, aided by volunteer lawyers, are now preparing a class suit individually or collectively against the Magic 7 whom Mayor Belen Fernandez accused of imposing its own rules not found in the books. Her view was backed by City Legal Officer Aurora Valle two nights ago when she pointed out that in budgeting one deals only with numbers, not names.

Atty. Valle said the department heads already complied substantially when they appeared before committee of seven and reported the number of JOEs in their respective offices.

“Substantially, therefore, if we talk in legal manner, we had complied substantially,” Valle said, echoing to all and sundry for the seven-man majority to hear that in budget preparation, “we deal with numbers, we do not deal in names.”

She said private corporations prepare their budgets with numbers not with names.  Congress passes the national appropriations act for its numbers. The Sangguniang Panlalawigan approves the provincial budget for its numbers.

I’ve been in the government service for 39 to 40 years (not as JOE but as but as senior editor), I’ve not heard my name or of my co-workers’ names being submitted in Congress by the head of our agency when he defended our budget.

Incidentally, it was not only the names of JOEs and front liners that Councilor Red Erfe -Mejia demanded but also names of Persons with Disabilities, names of suppliers and contractors! The non-submission of those name may have been his reason behind their committee’s refusal to approve the 20 percent development tax, a move that made Dagupan city government in the entire world without a program to implement. This is insane.

He was obviously fishing for irregularities? How can an irregularity be committed if funds have not been transmitted to the city hall?

These and other documents required by the finance  committee of Erfe-Mejia cannot be found in Local Government Code as well as in the guidelines set by the Department of Budget and Management for the review and passage of the budget.

But in their simple minds, they believe that majority rules regardless of what LGC and DBM established. This is something outrageous.

As to the slashing of the 20 percent development fund, Luz de Guzman, former city budget officer and now executive assistant of Mayor Fernandez, an authority in budgeting, maintained it was Erfe Mejia, not the city hall who made the mistake in computing the National Tax Allotment due the city.

Erfe-Mejia, she said, mistakenly assumed that the share of the city from the PCSO, miscellaneous taxes and e-Vat are also part of NTA. The Magic 7 thought it is their function to prepare their own budget and arrogated themselves upon the function of rewriting the budget prepared by the executive when its function under the Local Government Code is only limited to reviewing the budget and legislating.

They can be sued before the Ombudsman also for exceeding their own boundaries by preparing the budgets themselves in the guise of amending the original that was proposed by the minority.

And what’s this I heard that they committed an unconstitutional act for slashing the budget of the Commission on Audit!. What a big booboo. Another case to be filed!

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