Monday, October 06, 2008 More diatribes between guv, vice guv
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The governor is impatiently waiting for the Provincial Board (PB)'s approval of his request for supplemental budget, saying he has sent to the local legislative body the needed documents that justify his request.
The vice governor, on the other hand, said the governor "obviously doesn't know what he's doing," maintaining that mere documents could not justify the approval of the budgetary request.
The documents presented to the PB, according to Pampanga Governor Eddie Panlilio, provide details on where and how the requested supplemental budget would be utilized.
"I appeal to our Vice Governor and Board Members that they immediately heed our call for a supplemental budget to give to our people the service that they deserve," Panlilio said.
But Vice Governor Joseller Guiao said: "It is unfair for the governor to say that we are not acting on the supplemental budget. We have been continuously looking into it and have been asking the question why he has not justified it fully."
He added that the governor's team should answer why they need the budget and how it will be utilized.
"The governor could very well justify it if he would send competent people to defend the budget," Guaio said, as if implying that those who tried to justify Panlilio's request had failed to convince the PB to approve the supplemental budget.
Earlier, the governor explained that the budget of his Office had been depleted after it shouldered the personal services and operational expenses of the Provincial Information Office (PIO), the Management Information System (MIS), the Biyaya A Luluguran at Sisikapan (Balas) quarry monitoring task force, and the Arts, Culture and Tourism Office (Acto), which he described as attached to his office.
The Provincial Board, he said, did not appropriate budget for PIO, MIS, Balas and ACTO this year, prompting the Governor's Office to subsidize them.
Guiao and the board members, on the other hand, described Panlilio's action as "technical malversation."
Meanwhile, Panlilio has revealed that the Governor's Office has incurred debts, as vehicles being used in quarry monitoring needed to gas up at a Petron gas station here.
"Right now, we are drowning in debt to Petron for the oil we use for our quarry monitoring vehicles," Panlilio said, stressing that quarry monitoring would be put in jeopardy if the supplemental budget would not be approved soon.
"This is also what the scholars in our province are experiencing. The first semester is coming to an end and until now, the fund for their tuition fees has not been released yet," Panlilio said, adding that despite the big income from the quarry operations in the province, the PB has not approved "a penny" for the quarry monitoring task force budget.
But Guaio refuted Panlilio's claims. He disclosed that the PB is about to approve the program for the scholars of the province.
"The PB has worked with the civil society who asked to make a program plan for the province's scholars," Guiao said, explaining that they have met with the civil society regarding the said program.
Guiao said in approving such budgets, it is inherent upon the PB to scrutinize every detail to ensure that such budget would really benefit the people of the province.
"It just goes to say that he does not know what he is saying. What the governor should do is send in the people who can justify the budget that he is asking for," the vice governor added. (IOF)
