Budget wars

Finally, Mayor Michael Rama has something for which to thank the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan(BO-PK)-dominated City Council.

It finally approved Supplemental Budget No. 2.

The tit-for-tat between the unfriendly City Council and the mayor was full of drama— insults, delaying tactics, blackmail.

But with the approval last Wednesday of the supplemental budget, did the ending signal that all’s well that ends well?

Far from it.

The budget impasse revealed how a political war to capture Cebu City uses public spending as a major battle ground.

Take for example the most visible cut in supplemental budget 2—fuel.

In the past weeks, Mayor Rama has been lamenting that City Hall vehicles would grind to a halt with dwindling supplies in the city depot.

He blamed uncollected garbage on the lack of fuel as well because vehicles operated by the barangays ran dry, barangay police cars went immobile, so on and so forth.

The mayor, who just came back from a pilgrimage in Rome for the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod even hinted that a proposed Devotee City for the Nov. 30 national thanksgiving may not rise because he fears that the City Council would just disapprove a request for funds.

The 50-percent cut in the fuel appropriation in SB 2 was a product of politics, not reasoned arithmetic.

The drop from P30 million to P15 million was a signal that the City Council doesn’t want the mayor’s reelection campaign to cover significant ground.

They want to limit the mayor’s movement around town.

Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa said the mayor anyway cut by half the 300-liter monthly allocation per city councilor last September, and deserves a dose of his own medicine.

The cuts may also be the BO-PK’s retaliation against Rama for giving new City Hall vehicles intended for barangay councils with a preference for his allies.

It isn’t over yet.

There’s still the 2013 annual budget to wrangle over and hold hostage, once more, public funds for another round of political hostilities.