Toledo City Majority bloc assails 2014 budget approval

CEBU, Philippines - The majority members of the Toledo City Council have expressed their “vehement opposition and strong condemnation” over the passage of the 2014 annual budget.

Six councilors signed a joint manifestation declaring the passage and approval of the executive budget as null and void for lack of quorum and other legal and statutory requirements.  They are Councilors Helen Jill Espinosa, chairperson of the committee on appropriations, Ricardo Pepito, Antonio Borja Jr., Rogelio Caburnay, Louis Nicholas Espinosa, and Edgardo Aguilar.

Another member of the majority bloc, Councilor Marjorie Perales, did not sign the manifestation.

The budget was passed during a special session held on March 27 despite the absence of quorum, in violation of Section 53 of  the Local Government Code of 1991. During the special session there were only six members present including the presiding officer, Vice Mayor Antonio Yapha Jr. The other members present were Pepito, Espinosa, Merly Abad, Zosimo Abellanosa, and Leo Dolino.

The City Council at present is composed of the vice mayor and 10 councilors with one vacant post after the death of councilor Ricardo Rafols. The majority contended that 50 percent of 11 is 5.5, plus one which is 6.5, thus seven members are required to constitute a quorum.

The budget was reportedly approved by only three members voting for it. Pepito, as majority floor leader, moved for a two-minute recess but while he and  Espinosa were still outside the session hall, Yapha allegedly resumed the session and “hurriedly” approved the budget with only three members, Dolino,  Abad and Abellanosa, present.

Yapha insisted that a quorum was already constituted at the start of the session with himself as presiding officer and the five members present.

The majority also claimed the budget was illegally passed without the final committee report submitted in violation of the City Council’s house rules. The rules provide that “no proposed ordinance or resolutions shall be considered on second reading unless it has been reported out properly by the proper committee to which it was referred.”

“The Executive Budget did not pass the normal procedure for passage in blatant violation of the House Rules of the Sangguniang Panlungsod,” read the manifestation.

The majority asked City Mayor John Henry Osmeña and all other City Hall officials to cease and desist from implementing the 2014 budget.

Copies of their manifestation were sent to the offices of Governor Hilario Davide III, Vice Governor Agnes Magpale, all Provincial Board Members, Department of Interior and Local Government, Ombudsman for the Visayas, Department of Budget and Management, and the Commission on Audit.—(FREEMAN)