THE minority in the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) agreed with the manifestation of the majority to end its committee hearings on the 2023 proposed annual budget on March 14 even with no certainty that the annual budget will be approved.

Councilor Redford Erfe-Mejia, chairman of the committee on finance budget and appropriation, acknowledged that March 14 will be the last the budget hearing in accordance with the schedule which he submitted to the office of Mayor Belen Fernandez and the provincial and city offices of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Erfe-Mejia said his committee will submit a committee report a week March 21, attaching the compiled minutes of all the budget hearings conducted since January even if the whole month of January, no department head attended.

He added that while he and his fellow members in the majority agreed to terminate the committee hearings on March 14, he warned that if department heads who do not appear in the hearings, to do it soon or else the target date will be moved and the passage of the annual budget will be delayed further.

He cited the cases of Zenaida Sinlao, the OIC of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, and City Schools Division Superintendent Aguedo Fernandez who did not appear with the other department heads and resource persons in the February 14 scheduled budget hearing and were again invited to appear during the February 21 hearing.

“Nag-submit na ang committee ng schedule ng committee hearings sa department heads concerned. Until March 14 talaga dapat tayo. Pero, what happened is, hindi nag-aattend ang mga department heads. We have no choice but to move the schedule in order to accommodate department heads who did not show up,” Erfe Mejia said.

To Minority Floor Leader Michael Fernandez warning that a committee report is  incomplete without the minutes of every committee hearing, is violative of Sections 27  and 40 of the Internal Rules and Procedures for a chance for the minority to review the reports, Erfe-Mejia assured that the committee report to be submitted on March 21 will be compiled minutes of committee hearings.

The minority leader said without the minutes of committee hearing attached to the committee report and which should form part of the agenda, the four other members of the SP minority and the public would have no way of knowing what happened during the committee hearings, given that the same are public records.

He cited the committee report submitted by Erfe-Mejia last February 14 that only contained the questions of majority councilors but did include the answers of Meliquin Bauzon of the Public Alert Response Monitoring Center and Arvin Decano of the Public Order and Safety Office.

Fernandez said the committee report did not also contain the committee’s response to his question about tricycles’ files  deleted by POSO.

Fernandez’ motion for the submission of the committee report along with minutes attached to it was passed by the SP without objection.

The DILG, Provincial Director Virgilio Sison earlier told the Dagupan SP that it has until March 31 to pass the annual budget, otherwise Dagupan City will operate on a rejected budget and may not be able to comply with the needs of its growing population.  (Leonardo Micua)

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