THE four-member Cebu City Council has rejected the P6-billion proposed revised 2016 annual budget Acting Mayor Margarita Osmeña has submitted.
That means the city government is still operating on the re-enacted 2015 annual budget.
That also shows the power of four councilors, actually three Team Rama councilors, to reject the budget.
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Perhaps the architect behind the suspension of 12 councilors, along with outgoing Mayor Mike Rama and reelected Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, underestimated the power of only three Team Rama councilors.
What can three councilors do?
The latest development shows they can, in fact, scuttle the annual budget.
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Cebu City Councilor James Cuenco, who chairs the budget and finance committee, said the budget rejection is a party decision of Team Rama.
He wants to leave the approval of the budget to the next council, he said in so many words during the budget deliberation.
Perhaps he thinks the next council, with a bigger Team Rama majority, could do a better job than a three-councilor Team Rama majority.
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It would have been interesting if the four-member council had passed the city’s proposed revised annual budget for 2016.
This gang of four chose to thrash the budget. The Team Rama majority of three could have slashed it down or cut it into shreds.
The rejection of the budget could be a glimpse of things to come in the city council.
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Acting Mayor Margot Osmeña said the budget rejection was politically motivated after Cuenco revealed that it was a Team Rama decision.
Something just went awry in the suspension of 12 city councilors.
They should have suspended only the councilors who are members of Team Rama.