Sunday, December 30, 2007 Debate keeps Dumanjug from passing budget
THE town of Dumanjug, Cebu might have to content itself with a reenacted budget after officials’ failed to pass the 2008 version in this week’s council session.
Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president Antonio Garcia said the municipal council members could not agree on his illegibility as ex-officio member that it hampered the P40-million budget’s approval.
The town would have to make do with a budget of just P20 million if the body could not agree on the allocation within the 90-day grace period, he said.
Session
Garcia, who represents the barangays in the council, is hopeful the budget will be tackled in their session Wednesday next week.
“For the sake of continuity they should stop wasting time,” he said when the budget was not approved in their last session.
The town’s legislators focused their attention on whether or not Garcia and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) federation president Christian Miguel Quirante could sit as ex-officio members without Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) appointments.
Councilor Efren Gica opposed the presence of Garcia and Quirante because the lack of DILG appointment papers.
This prompted presiding officer and Vice Mayor Abdon Jumao-as to exclude them in the proceedings.
Gica is an ally of Municipal Mayor Cesar Baricuatro, who had a falling out with Rep. Pablo Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district), Antonio’s uncle.
The DILG, though, has sent a directive informing that appointments are not needed for ex-officio members to sit in the municipal council.
Antonio and Baricuatro’s son Christopher both ran for ABC president.
But Christopher and allied barangay captains walked out of the polls, which resulted to the proclamation of Antonio. (JGA)
