Compostela mayor junks council budget override

CEBU – Compostela Mayor Ritchie Wagas has returned to the municipal council a resolution overriding his veto of the annual budget for 2008 citing that they failed to override and have illegally approved the resolution.

In his letter to Vice Mayor Joel Quino, Sangguniang Bayan presiding officer, Mayor Wagas said that the approval of the resolution no. 153 is patently illegal.

Wagas cited the ground that the proposed 2008 Executive Budget substantially complied with all the requisites for a valid and regular budget as duly endorsed by the Local Finance Committee.

The mayor said that his veto message dated October 23 was meant to apply and restore the vetoed items to its original version in view of the fact that all the changes made by the Sangguniang Bayan found in the resolution are in violation of the limitations.

Wagas cited Article 415 of the Implementing Rules and Regulation of the Local Government Code of 1991, which provides for the limitations in making any changes thereof. Wagas stressed that all the changes made are deemed illegal and without effect for all intents and purposes and which are likewise prejudicial to welfare of the municipality and its residents.

He further said that the resolution is short of the two-thirds vote requirement of all its members of the Sangguniang Bayan to effectively override his veto.

Wagas quoted Section 446 of the Local Government Code of 1991 citing that the Sangguniang Bayan, the legislative body of the municipality, shall be composed of the vice mayor as the presiding officer, the regular members, the president of the municipal chapter of the Liga ng mga Barangay, and the president of the Pambayang Pederasyon ng mga Sangguniang Kabataan.

The mayor quoted an opinion from the Department of Interior and Local Government no. 130, 2002 involving similar question saying: “Clearly, from the foregoing provision, the vice-mayor is a member of the sanggunian. It is a basic precept of under statutory construction that where the law speaks in a clear and categorical language, there is no room for interpretation. There is only room for application.”

Wagas said the total membership of the Sangguniang Bayan is eleven and by logical and mathematical computation, the two thirds vote of all its members is 8 in order to effectively override his veto.

He stressed that since there were only 7 members who voted in favor of its adoption then the resolution failed to meet the required number which is eight votes.

Citing the reason, Wagas said the approval of the resolution is patently illegal and without effect for all intents and purposes. He also emphasized that the 2008 annual budget had been delayed for a long time even beyond the prescriptive period set by law.

“In fact by implication, you are now in default and please let us not prolong the agony of our people by taking another political expedition,” said Wagas in his letter to Vice Mayor Quino.

Earlier, the Sangguniang Bayan overrode the veto of Mayor Ritchie Wagas on the annual budget for 2008.

The SB said the P47-million budget approved last October 15 by the council is in effect.

Mayor Wagas complained about the deletion of at least P6 million worth of items from his original draft, which was submitted to the council more than a year ago on October 16, 2007. The council deleted or reduced allocations they said were “excessive,” especially appropriations for job order employees.

It was learned that deleted were appropriations for advertisement and promotions (P300,000), a computerization program (P3 million) and expenses for the closure of a dump site (P600,000).

Also reduced were allocations for the municipal reclamation and port project, tourism/culture and arts programs, solid waste management program, lot acquisition for a planned sanitary landfill, and non-office expenses that included the town’s clean and green program, rescue operations, traffic enforcement program and garbage collection.

The Sangguniang Bayan re-allocated the slashed P1.8 million appropriation from non-office expenditures to aid for the barangay development fund.

The barangay development fund would be used to release financial assistance of between P100,000 and P300,000 to barangays Cabadiangan, Cambayog, Cogon, Bagalnga, Estaca, Magay, Buluang, Mulao, Tag-ubi, Dapdap and Canamucan.

The delayed approval of the annual budget caused conflict among town officials that even forced Governor Gwendolyn Garcia to mediate the conflict. — Jose P. Sollano/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)