From the vice mayor and Councilor Margarita Osmeña’s tone (“P13 billion? This is not a wishlist. This is a budget,” she said), the proposal could easily go the way of last year’s budget proposal, that is, cut down to half by a strict fiscalizing City Council.
By Acting City Treasurer Emma Villarete’s own admission, the city can only raise up to P6 billion of the proposed 2013 budget through more agressive revenue collection.
That fact is all that the councilors need to justify a whittled down budget once the dust of deliberations settles.
Nevertheless, no matter how the councilors proceed with the budget deliberations, one thing they should not ignore is their own constituents who made their voices heard on the question of where their tax money should go.
A substantial portion of the budget should go to flood mitigation and the making and implementation of a drainage master plan, waste management, manpower development services, socialized housing, scholarships, public market administration, public health and hospital services and elderly and differently abled services.
The city can’t drag its feet any longer on flood contorl and drainage measures.
Lives and property are lost each time it rains hard and paralysis continues to hold sway among those who should address our flooding problem.
Surely our councilors don’t need more typhoons that have yet to visit us this year to remind them about the urgency of proper drainage in the city.
The councilors also can’t let politics hold hostage the money that should go to managing our waste.
In the barangay, voters are evaluating City Hall’s performance based on how often garbage is collected every week in the neighborhood, how seriously rules on trash segregation are enforced all the way to the landfill.
The people are watching City Hall.
Councilors can brand the budget proposal of the mayor’s office as unrealistic, but they can’t turn their back on valid demands of public service or filibuster and maneuver spiteful budget trimming without a consequence.
If they do that, let them hear discerning voters say, “See you at the polls.”