Cagayan de Oro mayor vetoes provisions in 2015 ‘mangled’ budget

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Mayor Oscar Moreno has vetoed many provisions in the city’s 2015 budget approved by the city council.

Moreno said the move by the city council, which has been dominated by allies of former mayor Vicente Emano, to disapprove funding for social services and infrastructure was “ultra vires” or beyond its power.

“They (city council) have turned the whole budget preparation process into a concerted political vendetta, by the massive deletion, insertion and changes in the resulting executive budget,” Moreno said.

Last month, the city council trimmed the proposed budget by P1.7 billion even if city treasurer Glen Banez certify that the city could afford the proposed P3.8-billion budget.

City Councilor President Elipe, Emano’s son-in-law, said the failure of the city department heads to attend the budget hearings was the main reason for the trimming of the annual budget.

But City Budget Officer Percy Salazar said the city council timed the budget hearings during the US tour of city officials in connection with a sisterhood agreement there.

“They have betrayed the people of Cagayan de Oro City,” Salazar said.

Moreno lamented that politics got in the way of important projects.

Among the projects that got zero-budget under the approved annual fund was the city government’s PhilHealth subsidy program.

The city council also disapproved the proposed budget for the city social welfare office, the city’s infrastructure projects, the indigent assistance program, fund for the city owned JR Borja General Hospital and the maternal child care program for barangay health centers.

Councilor Candy Darimbang, a Moreno ally, said that the majority’s move to deprive vital programs of funds was disgusting.

Moreno’s office itself was just given P1.2 million under the 2015 budget, a far cry from what Emano used to have when he was still the city’s chief executive. He was given an additional P500,000 in intelligence fund.

In 2013, the city council approved a P21-million budget for Emano’s office and also gave him the authority to spend P19 million for peace and order.

Moreno said while the city council deleted many provisions of the budget proposal his office had submitted, it approved a 45-percent increase in the budget allocated for each councilor, aside from the 77-percent increase in their operating expenses.

In vetoing many provisions of the new budget – including the deletions made by the city council – Moreno said he was showing that the councilor’s move to withhold funding for many programs was illegal, prejudicial to public welfare, an act of grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction and an encroachment on executive power.