Mayor says he will veto ordinance, saying ‘it’s not my budget’

BECAUSE it is not what he proposed, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday said he will veto the appropriation ordinance passed by the City Council covering the P5.19-billion budget of the City Government for this year.

“That budget is not really my budget and it has become a budget they (legislative body) don’t really want to be implemented in the spirit that the mayor would have wanted it,” he said.

Rama earlier wants the City to operate on a P6.7-billion budget for this year but it was slashed by the council to only P5.19 billion.

This year’s approved budget is P10 million lower compared to the P5.2-billion budget of the City in 2012 and P1.5 billion lower compared to Rama’s proposed budget.

Rama said he might also veto some of the provisions of the ordinance.

According to the general provisions of City Ordinance (CO) 2348, funds should only be used exclusively for its indicated purpose. Augmentation will be possible but the concurrence of the council is needed.

This is meant to prevent the mayor from realigning funds this year after the council found several realignments in the 2012 budget by the executive department during the deliberation of the 2013 budget in December last year.

Rama, in his news conference yesterday, said he and some of his consultants are already studying the appropriation ordinance passed by the council and the items included under the 2013 budget.

In line with this, Rama recently wrote the council and asked that the executive department be given a complete copy of CO 2348.

“It has been observed that the substantial and essential elements of the ordinance are lacking. What we have received is not the ordinance approved by the council,” he said in his letter dated Jan. 3.

Rama said the 10-day period for the ordinance to become a law will start only when the complete ordinance will have been submitted to his office.