Vice Mayor lambasts CDC head for presiding meeting on 2013 AIP

VICE Mayor Arvin Antoni lambasted Roland Hidalgo, city planning and development officer, for presiding the CDC meeting that aims to approve the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) for 2013 at the Balyuan Convention Center last Wednesday.

Antoni, during their weekly press briefing, said the presiding officer of CDC meeting must be Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez or his representative and not the head of the secretariat committee like CPDO Hidalgo.

Antoni said CDC, which is composed of 175 members, must include 138 barangay chairmen of the city, one City Council member who chairs the committee on finance and appropriation, the representative of the first district of Leyte, and 35 non-government organization (NGO) representatives who embodied all the duly accredited NGOs operating within Tacloban.

He said the Local Government Code of 1991 mandated the conduct of CDC meeting at least twice a year to discuss and plan socio-economic progress and development good for Tacloban, but the city does not follow the mandate as the administration only convenes CDC meeting once a year.

He said the things that are discussed during the meeting were also done just for compliance purposes.

Antoni said the AIP approved by the CDC members could be modified by five official members of the executive committee composed of the city mayor as chairman, with the Association of Barangay Chairmen (ABC) president, representative of the first district of Leyte, City Council member who chairs the committee of finance and appropriation, and a representative of the NGO as members.

“This is the first time that the AIP has been voted for its approval when the 54 chairmen questioned on the proper procedures that would be followed on approving this matter,” the vice mayor added.

Leyte Samar Daily Express noted that a motion on the deferment of the approval of the 2013 AIP was raised by one barangay chairman when he saw that there were only two copies of the AIP document provided by the City Planning and Development Office. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)