Cebu board approves slashed budget

CEBU — Nine provincial board members got their way as the heavily slashed provincial budget for 2004 was approved with finality the other day.

With this, the province will have to work on a budget of slightly over P1 billion with allocations for basic services at a paltry P1,000 per item.

In Monday’s session, board members behind the "budget pruning" refused to open the journal containing the trimmed budget. The 2004 budget was eventually approved with a vote of 9-3.

Disgusted with the proceedings, board member Ramon Martin Calderon walked out of the session hall.

Voting in favor of the budget slash were board members Raul Bacaltos, Orvi Ortega, Gregorio Sanchez, Estrella Yapha, Joven Mondigo, Jose Ma. Gastardo, Josefina Patricia Asirit, Rosemarie Durano and Michael Miranda.

Those who voted against it were board members Antonio Almirante Jr., Victor Maambong and Teresita Celis.

Board member Manuel Masangkay, who earlier voted against the budget slash, abstained, joining colleague Julian Daan.

Gov. Pablo Garcia had submitted a P1.017-billion budget for 2004, but the board, during its Nov. 17 session, voted 10-4 to remove 22 percent or close to P300 million from the proposed budget.

Asirit said the budget slash was not meant to trivialize the budgetary process but to teach Garcia and his allies a lesson that provincial funds should be distributed proportionately.

Under the Local Government Code, ordinances can only be passed directly without going through second or third readings if the government issues a certificate of urgency.

But in Monday’s session, the "budget pruners," this time in a vote of 9-3, went ahead and passed the trimmed 2004 budget.

Both Almirante and Maambong said the passage was illegal, arguing that a mere two-thirds vote does not legalize an inherently illegal act.

Vice Gov. John Gregory Osmeña, who presided over the session, said there was no need for a certificate of urgency because the budget was passed with two-thirds vote.

By mere numbers, he said the two-thirds vote was tantamount to a certificate of urgency.

Osmeña said the budget’s passage was legal, but Maambong insisted that the journal containing the Nov. 17 proceedings be opened to determine if what was approved was an appropriations ordinance or a committee report.

If it were just a committee report, then it would be disputable because the reorganization of the board’s committees still has to be finalized, he said.

"As far as we are concerned, the budget does not exist legally," Almirante said.

But the majority bloc muzzled up Maambong and Almirante when Osmeña said a two-thirds vote rendered the approval with finality.

The approved 2004 budget literally allocates P1,000 each for items under basic services, including, among others, donations, confidential expenses, subsidies to non-government organizations and people’s organizations, and peace and order.

Also affected are financial assistance to individuals and families in crisis situations, purchase of medicines for and payments of hospital bills of provincial folk, water, electrification and development assistance projects, and drug abuse prevention programs. — Freeman News Service