By Leonardo Micua

 

THE 2026 budget of Dagupan City, amounts to P1. 83 billion, made history when it was passed during the regular session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on October 14, 2025 – the earliest annual budget ever approved in the city’s history.

Thanks to Vice Mayor  Bryan Kua, the presiding officer, and 11 councilors — Michael Fernandez, Joe Netu Tamayo, Christel Hilary Paras, Jeslito Seen, Karlos Reyna Danielle Canto, Marvin Fabia, Luis Samson Jr., Jalice Cayabyab, Marcelino Fernandez and Bradley Benavides  —who composed the biggest “super majority” ever assembled in Dagupan. Indeed, they made the impossible possible.

This is in stark contrast to two years ago. The longest delay in the passage of an annual budget happened in 2023 when it was approved only on September 26 — almost 10 months late — after what many described as an act of Divine Providence. That day, three of the seven majority councilors opposed to Mayor Belen Fernandez’s administration conveniently went on vacation abroad, leaving their four colleagues, who were too lazy to appear in person and instead joined via Zoom, only to later opt out.

Imagine how the city had to survive on a reenacted budget for nearly 10 months, limiting basic services and crippling operations.

Taking advantage of the absence of three majority members, the five-man minority bloc composed of Michael Fernandez, Jeslito Seen, Dennis Canto, Marcelino Fernandez and Joshua Bugayong seized the opportunity and passed the annual budget without any objection from the “zooming” majority members.

When the minutes of that session were later adopted, the three vacationing councilors insisted they join the voting, invoking legal gobbledygook, but VM Kua stood firm that only those who registered their presence during the past session could vote.

What followed was a mayhem — shouting, invectives, chair-kicking, and even one councilor hysterically demanding the door be locked, fearing that somebody had a gun. Despite the chaos, the five minority councilors succeeded in ratifying the minutes, formalizing the passage of the 2023 budget.

Soon after, VM Kua and the five minority councilors went to the police to blotter the incident, then filed a formal complaint with the City Prosecutors’ Office.

History repeated itself in 2024, though with a shorter delay. The annual budget was passed only in March, barely making the deadline set by the Local Government Code.

In 2025, the budget was passed on November 11, 2024, but only after three of the seven majority councilors were slapped with a 60-day preventive suspension by the Office of the President — again, perhaps, another act of God.

This year, things turned around despite attempts by lone opposition Councilor Librada Reyna to delay the passage of the budget by demanding documents on calamity fund utilization and the list of job orders and consultants, which are not material in the passage of the measure.

Floor leader Fernandez simply told her to wait for Mayor Belen Fernandez’s First  100  Days Report, and was promptly referred to the Human Resources Development Office for her other request.

Incidentally, Reyna earlier sought to be recognized as the minority floor leader, and as such, must be entitled to three Job Order Employees to work in her office, but VM Kua denied this because she had no one to second her motion. Reyna was the lone survivor of the once vaunted majority seven during the past Sanggunian.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Dagupan’s 2026 budget became the earliest to be passed in its long and colorful history.

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That box culvert across Jose de Venecia Highway, the dividing line between the city of Dagupan and Calasiao, must be closed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) soon. With it open, it conveys water from Banaoang, Calasiao to the dry lands in Lasip Chico in Dagupan, making the latter a virtual creek.

 With the washed-out dike in Barangay San Vicente, Calasiao, yet to be attended to by the DPWH and the Pangasinan provincial government, flooding in Calasiao and Dagupan remains possible even without rain, when the waters of the Marusay River reach critical level.

 Barangay San Vicente is close to Banaoang where the box culvert was surreptitiously installed, to ease the flood in that village,  but, unfortunately, at the expense of Lasip Chico.

 This box culvert was believed to have been installed way back in 2013. It was around this year when the flooding in Dagupan’s southern barangays, including the downtown area, became more intense. 

 The ball is now in the hands of DPWH.