Friday, February 01, 2008 Mandaue officials hold marathon talks on budget
A MARATHON negotiation that started Tuesday and continued yesterday was attempted to settle Mandaue City officials’ differences over vetoed items in the annual budget, a top official said yesterday.
The negotiations were part of the reason the City Council failed to have a session Wednesday, said Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna.
He denied talks that some formerly opposition councilors, now allied with the mayor, didn’t show up to block the planned override of the line veto.
The negotiation is also an attempt to bridge the widening gap between the two camps, exacerbated by the line veto.
Proposal
Fortuna said that the mayor’s camp presented to them a proposal last Wednesday, for them not to override the veto. They will give the proposal a chance until next week.
When asked for specifics, Fortuna begged off, saying it would be premature to divulge the details of the proposal.
Edmund Sanchez, a Cortes ally who is privy to the negotiation, named those involved in the talks as City Administrator Briccio Boholst, Acting Assistant Administrator Ernesto Maringuran and City Treasurer Lorna Atega, on one hand, and Vice Mayor Fortuna, Councilors Victor Biaño and Emil Rosal, on the other.
The City Council failed to reach a quorum last Wednesday.
Insertions
Sanchez also kept mum when asked about details of the proposal.
Before the New Year’s break, the Mandaue City Council passed a P668-million annual budget.
Last week, the mayor vetoed some items that he considered “insertions” that were beyond the council’s authority to make.
Among these were P6.9 million for the salaries of legislative assistants and the transfer of two items in the budget, the Traffic Enforcement Program and the Clean and Green Program.
Fortuna said that both camps had earlier agreed to support each other, including the funding of the legislative assistants’ items.
Cortes, however, said the creation of legislative assistants was only formalized this year, while the executive budget was submitted to the council last year yet.
‘Clerical error’
“So how can I allocate funds for something that was not yet created at that time?” said the mayor.
Fortuna said the council retained the two programs but merely transferred it, from lump sum appropriations to other programs and projects.
The mayor said P2.3 million was “lost” in the transfer.
In the initial document from the council, there was zero allocation for the traffic and clean and green items.
Council secretary Frelyn Mabanag immediately wrote a letter to Cortes blaming “a clerical error that was inadvertently missed by our encoder.”
To override the mayor’s veto, the council needs a vote of two thirds of all members. That was not possible last Wednesday, when four councilors were absent. (OCP)
