Budget talks

The Cebu City Council’s override of a partial veto by Mayor Michael Rama had all but made official the P5.2 billion budget for calendar year 2013 and Cebu City residents have to live with that fact even with—and especially in the event—of a change in administration.

The common rationale pushed by the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) council is to use only what the city is capable of raising and to file supplemental budgets for additional purchases or projects—basically the same old policy used by their patron, former mayor and now Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district.

With only his department chiefs at his side, Rama could only swallow the final budget ordinance though not without issuing his partial veto as his own personal act of defiance against what he perceived as a tyranny of numbers.

But even the council itself would accuse Rama of trying to solicit public sympathy by accusing them of sabotaging his budget proposal due to politics. It’s been that way ever since Rama broke away from the BO-PK after one of its members, a newbie at that, spoke out against him in connection to the displacement of settlers at the Mahiga Creek in 2011.

After making ambitious budget targets of upwards to P10 billion, Rama scaled down the 2013 budget to P6.7 billion in hopes that it would pass scrutiny in the council. Alas it wasn’t the case.

Among those items that were reduced were the senior citizens cash assistance aid whose distribution was even re-scheduled to June and December or months after this year’s elections.

The change in schedule was perhaps a blunt reminder to Rama that the allocation will be done when he may no longer be in office on the presumption that Osmeña will defeat him in the mayoralty race.

The seniors cash aid allocation is a sore point for Rama, who promised an increase this year in his 2012 state of the city address. Osmeña had initiated the allocation in tandem with the college scholarships of indigent students and the congressman won’t allow his successor to ride on his initiatives for his re-election bid.

Which makes us wonder if the BO-PK council would continue to be resistant if Rama were to be re-elected mayor, however slim the chance it may be? Then again unless a local soothsayer’s prediction comes true, budget trimming will be the order of the day for Cebu City for this year and for years to come.

Whoever gets to sit as mayor and councilors this year, Cebu City residents should demand from them bigger budget allocations for flooding, schools and other essential services that were cut down or removed altogether by the council due to political expediencies.