THE last stumbling block raised by the majority bloc over the use of the P1.3 billion annual  budget of Dagupan for 2023 was finally cleared after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) declared the Appropriations Ordinance  (AO) No. 2274-202 as  “operative in its entirety effective” upon approval.

Declared operative in its entirety was the AO passed by Sangguniang Panlungsod on September 23, 2023 after more than nine months of delay caused by protracted discussions launched by members of the majority bloc in the city council.

A five-page letter to the Sangguniang Panlungsod thru Mayor Belen Fernandez dated December 1, 2023 signed by DBM Regional Director Ria Bansigan, by authority of the Secretary of Budget and Management, stated in part that AO No. 2274-2023 submitted to DBM for review on September 29, 2023, substantially complied with the provisions of the Local Government Code and its Implementing Rules and Regulations..

This was in stark contrast to the action taken by DBM in July when it returned to the SP the first version of the AO sponsored by the majority bloc that allocated to Dagupan a measly annual budget of P864.9 million, and  declared it as “inoperative in its entirety.”

The positive action of DBM on AO 2274-2023  dealt a major setback to the majority bloc whose members questioned the passage of the ordinance  not only in the halls of the SP, but also in letters it sent to both DBM and the Department of the Interior and Local Government

The December 1 letter of Director Bansigan to the SP thru Mayor Fernandez was preceded by her earlier letter to Vice Mayor Kua on November 30 that shared the opinion of DBM Legal Service that the ordinance submitted to the agency for review had the presumption of validity based on earlier decisions of the Supreme Court.

Given the DBM’s legal opinion, the Local Development Council endorsed Mayor Fernandez’s decision to resubmit the original version of the appropriation ordinance.

The passage of AO 2274-2023 on September 23 was not without controversy when the majority bloc failed to have the number to block the ordinance because three of its  members were on vacation leave overseas. The presence of five members of the minority and only four members of the majority composed the quorum that day.

The approval was quickly assailed in next regular sessions with claims of violations of internal rules.

During the SP’s November 28 regular session, Councilor Redford Mejia, chair of the committee on finance, budget and appropriations, was stilll confident that AO 2274-2023 will be declared “inoperative in its entirety” because of the questions he and his colleagues raised before the DBM and the Department of the Interior and Local Government. (Leonardo Micua)

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments