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Friday, March 19, 2004
Barangay service shut down
By GINGGING A. CAMPAÑA
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
PUNTA Princesa, Cebu City won over 43,000 communities in the country when it was named the most outstanding barangay in 1999 for its self-sustaining projects, environmental programs and innovations.
But it may have a hard time maintaining its prestige now.
Phone lines and electricity at the Punta Princesa barangay hall have been disconnected, and garbage all over the village has not been properly collected in the last four months.
Five years ago, the barangay earned the national award given by the Department of Interior and Local Government because, village chief Jose Navarro had said, “We have big funds for our projects.”
Had Mayor Tomas Osmeña not withheld the barangay’s close to P2-million share from the City’s collection of real property taxes this year and in 2002, these problems would have been solved, said Navarro.
“We could have paid our bills and had our garbage trucks fixed. It’s a good thing that Veco gave us more time to pay for the electricity bills, that’s why they re-connected the power,” he said.
Navarro, former Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) chief, blamed the mayor’s personal grudge against him for delaying the release of Punta Princesa’s share.
It was during Navarro’s term as ABC chief that some barangay captains led a move to recall Mayor Osmeña shortly before the barangay elections in 2002. Time ran out on that effort, though.
Deductions
The mayor had initially refused to approve the P1.9-million vouchers backing the barangay’s share, because he wanted the City Accounting Office to deduct from the account some P200,000.
That amount represents the disallowed honorarium that Navarro got from the barangay while he sat as ex-officio member of the City Council. The ABC president is entitled to a seat in the city legislature.
City Accountant Edna Jaca, however, returned the vouchers with a note that the disallowance is Navarro’s personal liability and that the barangay should not be deprived of its share.
Osmeña confirmed in a news conference yesterday that Navarro should pay for his disallowed honorarium. The Supreme Court (SC) has finally ruled that he (Navarro) should only have been compensated once, instead of getting both his honorarium as village chief and his salary as ex-officio member.
The mayor also said he already approved the release of the barangay’s share on condition that the disallowance be “deducted from Navarro’s honorarium.”
“He owes the government so much money. He has been receiving two salaries for so many years. It is my responsibility to protect the City. I’m not running after the barangay.
He has not paid for it now even if my term is ending. I want to stop this first,” Osmeña said.
Wait for court
Navarro, on the other hand, said the City cannot just implement the SC decision without an order from the Regional Trial Court (RTC).
Also, RTC Judge Ireneo Gako still has to rule on his manifesto requesting the disallowance to be “off-set from my terminal leave pay (as city councilor) of over P300,000 from the City Government.”
“I don’t owe City Hall anything. But I owe the amount to the barangay funds. Why should he prejudice the barangay’s welfare with my personal liability? Why can he not wait for the court to decide that my liability will be charged against my terminal leave benefits?” Navarro said.
Jaca had disallowed the vouchers supporting Navarro’s salary as ex-officio member of the council, based on Administrative Order (AO) 337. That order mandated ex-officio members to collect only one salary from either of the two positions.
As village chief, Navarro receives P12,000 a month. When he was still ABC chief, he used to get P18,000 as ex-officio member.
But Jaca had said the total amount Navarro received had to be cut to match the amounts received by other councilors.
Navarro sued Jaca in court over that disallowance.
Judge Gako had ruled in favor of Navarro after then president Joseph Estrada issued a memorandum that AO 337 only applies to federation presidents of provinces and component cities, and does not cover highly urbanized cities like Cebu City.
“That’s why I was allowed to collect both salaries,” Navarro said.
(March 19, 2004 issue)
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