BACOLOD City Councilor Ricardo Tan urged the city mayor's office and the special committee in charge of the first Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival to liquidate the P2 million budget for the celebration of the festival on May 7.
Tan said Thursday, May 10, the city mayor's office and the special committee in charge should liquidate the funds because they are using the public money and it is their obligation to liquidate.
He said on May 9’s regular session, he expects that his colleagues will turn down his proposed resolution requesting the Office of the Mayor, and the special committee in charge to liquidate the P2 million budget and to explain why some local government officials were not officially invited to the event.
"I know that liquidation is required one month after the occasion, but what's wrong with my resolution if I will ask them to liquidate it early? They can liquidate it anytime if they want to," Tan added.
Tan noted that on April 4, the city council approved City Ordinance Number 847, allocating a budget of P2 million for the celebration of Bacolod Inasal Festival, and the said ordinance likewise created a Special Committee, headed by the mayor, to manage the funds allocated.
Tan also questioned the special committee for not sending him a formal invitation in his office.
"Being elected as a city official, it's a protocol to invite us. They should not be selective and I felt insulted by their intentional political actuation for not sending an invitation to my office to attend the festival," Tan said.
He said some of his colleagues also failed to receive an invitation for the occasion.
"The Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival should be enjoyed by everybody and it's an occasion to unite our officials and employees, but they only limit it to the Grupo Progreso, the current administration’s political party. I'm very much saddened by this reality and we need to change it," he added.
For her part, Councilor Cindy Rojas, chairperson of the Inasal Festival, said the request of Tan was premature because the festival was just celebrated on May 7.
"The Commission on Audit (COA) required us to liquidate it in 30 days, we will comply with it and we are now preparing all the documents to liquidate our expenses," she said.
She added the City Government only used P1.2 million for the festival.
Rojas noted that they will submit their liquidation report to COA and not to the city council.
On the allegation that Tan was not invited to the event, Rojas said that the Inasal Festival is an affair of the City Government and it was for everybody.
"As a city official, it is your duty and responsibility to attend, participate and support it. It is also the discretion of the said official if he or she will attend the said event. In other words, he knows there was the festival on that certain day, it has been posted in social media, several press conferences were held, write-ups have been printed, and he even presided over the passage of the said ordinance with several amendments," she said.
Rojas said Tan cannot claim ignorance and cry foul that he was not invited to the said event.
(MAP)