By Leonardo Micua

 

IT no longer surprised me and, of course, many others, why the Department of Budget and Management declared the 2023 annual budget of Dagupan “inoperative in its entirety.”

It is because, it’s no secret that the passage of the city budget by the majority in the Sangguniang Panlungsod was attended with malice if not hate, directed at giving hell to the administration of Mayor Belen Fernandez.

I don’t think members of the majority 7 were not so stupid not to ever realize that they committed an act inimical to the best interests of Dagupan and its people by enacting a budget that is not in accordance with law.

How could the enactment of a very objectionable annual budget at P864.3 million, good for  a third class municipality, not intended to make the life of the people of Dagupan  and of Belen Fernandez more miserable?

As the people of Dagupan already knew, their agenda was not to fiscalize but to obstruct whatever good programs and projects that Mayor Belen has in store for her people.

Playing politics since day one of the administration of Mayor Belen, they did not give a damn if Dagupan would go to the dogs, nor care at all if they would be branded as a bunch of ignoramus for not knowing what they were doing.

But since Dagupan is the only local government unit in the whole country with a budget that was declared by DBM as “inoperative in its entirety”, they are exposed to the world and the whole nation that they, indeed, are bunch of unthinking politicians who we think should not be in government in the first place.

Note that this is the first time in the 76 year history of Dagupan that its annual budget was declared “inoperative in its entirety,”  virtually insulting our ancestors who served Dagupan with only public interest and public welfare in mind.

By reducing the budget of Dagupan to just P864.3 million, when it already joined the billionaire club since 2019, the majority councilors, I am sure, will go down in the books as the ones who attempted to stop Dagupan from moving forward.

Firstly, they deliberately deleted the 20 percent development fund in the approved budget, a mandatory requirement in any budget-making process.

It is unthinkable that they did not know this requirement since five of the seven councilors in the majority already served as councilors in the past, and only two are new.

But the 20 percent development fund in the approved budget could not be found simply because their computation on the amount of share due Dagupan from the national tax was wrong. This is basic.

And when they amended the AIP just for the heck of amending it, and later realized that their ignorance was exposed, they hastily passed another AIP, whose passage came after the enactment of the annual budget. That, too, was considered by DBM as another violation.

With these booboos, no one can stop any Dagupeño from thinking that the annual budget rejected by DBM is a product of immature minds of the seven members of the SP majority.

That is why, the only recourse is to go to the court to make the majority seven accountable for denying the people the services and projects due them, to make the city’s growth stagnant, even going backward.

Even if the annual budget is re-submitted, in accordance with the suggestion of DBM, methinks it would again encounter a rough sailing, knowing that the majority will again insist on their internal rules that every measure must go through committee hearings ad infinitum.

Look at the resolution for the creation of a Personnel Selection Board. It was already subjected to at least five committee hearings since last year and the last one (hopefully) has yet to be scheduled at the pleasure of the committee chairman.

And what about the resolution for the establishment of Balay Silangan? The inconsiderate majority must be thinking PDEA can wait.

If a new proposed annual budget is re-submitted, knowing their modus, they will again demand not only for more endless committee hearings but ask for the presentation of documents that are inconsequential.

Unless, of course, Mayor Belen decides to scratch their backs and they scratch hers. You know what I mean.

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