Sanchez has ample time to question Capitol budget

CEBU, Philippines – Vice-Governor Gregorio Sanchez has at least two weeks to question the proposed 2011 annual budget in court as the Cebu Provincial Board has no session for two successive Mondays.

Majority of the PB members are in Manila today to attend the national convention of the Provincial Board Members League of the Philippines.

Next Monday, November 29, the PB still could not hold its regular session because it is declared holiday by Malacañang in line with the celebration of the Bonifacio Day.

But Sanchez, who sits as chairman of the PB, said it doesn't mean relax days for him as he will be working on his petition asking the court for declaratory relief on the P3-billion proposed annual budget for next year and to restrain PB from approving it in their next session.

The vice governor insists that the budget is illegal as it has no signature of the concerned department heads like that of the Office of the Vice Governor as head of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

Because of this, Sanchez returned the copy of the proposed budget to the Office of the Governor before a budget hearing was conducted.

But despite legal threats from Sanchez, the members of the committee on budget and appropriation approved the proposed P3 billion annual budget during their committee hearing last week.

Committee chairman, PB Member Peter John Calderon, announced the approval of the budget in the committee level in toto. The committee will endorse its report for plenary discussion next month.

The vice governor, who questioned the proposed budget for allegedly being "illegal" and "maliciously prepared," earlier threatened to sue his colleagues at the Provincial Board if they insist on conducting a budget hearing despite his objection.

Sanchez returned his copy of the budget to the Office of the Governor and also referred it to the Department of Budget and Management. Despite Sanchez's objection however the Provincial Board approved the proposed 2011 budget in the first reading.

According to Sanchez, the proposed annual budget was "maliciously prepared" as the budget for the office of the vice governor was slashed by 61 percent and all the salaries and wages of the SP casual and contractual employees were totally cancelled.

In the proposed annual budget, the budget for the office of the vice governor was slashed by at least 61 percent from P45.5 million to P18 million and each PB member's budget was down by 70 percent from P8 million to P2.4 million while the budget for the office of the governor was up by 41.85 percent from P485.4 million to P688.6 million. (FREEMAN)