Mabalacat City's P1.7-B budget approval delayed

THE approval of the Mabalacat City’s P1.7-billion proposed budget for 2019 has been delayed.

This was learned from Vice Mayor Christian Halili during a media forum on Wednesday, January 9, at Widus Hotel and Casino in Clark Freeport which was facilitated by the Pampanga Press Club.

Halili blamed the executive department of the local government, under the leadership of Mayor Crisostomo Garbo, for the delay in the approval of the city's proposed budget.

The vice mayor said they are waiting for several documents from the city government's executive department which will support the proposed budget.

He mentioned some of the documents including the list of employees with the job orders (JOs) and special rates with P50,000 monthly salaries, gasoline expenses, list of hospitals with medical assistance agreements with the city, among others.

During the forum, Halili admitted that the city council cannot tackle new agenda and proposed ordinance and resolution because of the delay in the budget approval.

This is provided for under Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code, according to the vice-mayor.

“As of now, we haven’t approved the budget yet because we are still waiting for the documents we requested from the [executive department],” Halili said.

Lawyer Emmanuel Ignacio, city legal officer, said that the list of JO employees has nothing to do with the approval of the city's 2019 proposed budget.

Ignacio added that all of the documents mentioned were already submitted to the Commission on Audit (COA).

“If they think that we have done something, they can always file charges against us because the documents were already submitted to the COA,” the legal officer said.

Ignacio even threatened to file charges against members of the city council if they fail to approve the city's 2019 budget within the prescribed period.

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