Board to tackle Capitol budget with or without DILG opinion
-A A +AWednesday, January 23, 2013
BOARD Member Salvador Escalante, chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Provincial Board (PB), said Tuesday the Board will tackle the disapproved 2013 annual budget in their regular session on Wednesday with or without the opinion of the Department of Interior and Local Government on Section 323 of the Local Government Code.
"As agreed last session, first in the agenda is the budget" Escalante said.
It can be recalled the PB reached an impasse on the issue of the 2013 annual budget.
The last two sessions of the PB went to naught after nothing was taken up when Board member Miller Serondo invoked section 323 of the Local Government Code, which mandates that the body cannot take up any other matter except the 2013 annual budget.
It has 90 days to take up the budget and, if not approved, the 2012 budget will be fully reenacted.
The second session for the year was convened but was adjourned immediately after Serondo cited that, based on the LGC Section 323, the SP cannot discuss anything except the disapproved 2013 annual budget.
The matter was referred by the PB to the DILG for opinion.
Last week's session was also convened and then adjourned after Serondo again invoked Section 323 of the LGC.
The PB members agreed to wait for the DILG opinion.
There was no session during the first week of January because of lack of quorum.
Earlier, Negros Occidental Vice-Governor Genaro Alvarez said the disapproved 2013 annual budget could have been taken up if the regular procedure was allowed to flow in the PB.
As long as it is in the agenda, it will have to be taken up, he said.
Escalante also agreed that, even if the 2013 budget is last on the list and if one member will move to take it up first and the body approves, the matter can be tackled before other matters in the agenda.
On his part, Board Member Dino Yulo said that, aside from the 2013 annual budget, the SP will also take up the letter of reconsideration from Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. on the disapproval of the proposed 2013 budget.
Yulo said the PB will also have to take action on the veto of Marañon on the disapproved items in the supplemental budget last year.
Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on January 23, 2013.
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