BM: Nothing personal vs Guv

BOARD Member Emilio Yulo III clarified Friday that they have nothing against Governor Alfredo Marañon and that they are just after the welfare of the whole province.

Yulo made the statement in reaction to the statement of Marañon that if the City Council is after him, they should only zero the budget of the Office of the Governor and not to disapprove the whole 2013 budget.

Yulo said they disapproved the proposed 2013 budget submitted for City Council's approval by Marañon because the executive failed to submit an itemized projects for the 20 percent Development Fund of the province which he said is required under a circular of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Yulo also disagreed on the statement of the governor that contractual employees would be affected with the disapproval of the budget, because he said contractual employees are covered by the re-enacted budget.

He admitted, though, that the last tranche of employees’ salary increase would be affected by the disapproval of the 2013 budget.

"The SP now is just doing its function and mandate. This issue should not be connected with the 2013 elections as the governor said that politics should be set aside on this matter," Yulo said.

He said in the first three months of 2013, the City Council will devote its sessions to the budget as stated in the Local Government Code.

The City Council failed to hold its maiden session for 2013 last Wednesday for lack of quorum.

Yulo said that Marañon already exercised his veto power on the disapproved supplemental budget of the City Council after they raised some questions pertaining to the validity of the funding of the said projects.

Meanwhile, Board Member Salvador Escalante said, during the resumption of the regular session, he will present before the floor the Motion for Reconsideration (MR) submitted by the governor on the disapproved budget.