TWO opposition councilors on Monday called a resolution passed by the August body’s majority as “illegal,” saying it might be used by Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno as a “strategy” to get away from his “wrongdoings” and “malpractices.”
The majority of the city councilors voted anyway to pass the resolution that reaffirmed the commitment leading to the implementation of the Philhealth Indigency Program in the city.
This means that the City Council has confirmed all the City Government's payment to the Philhealth premiums through the annual and supplemental budgets and executive orders issued since then up until now, according to opposition councilor lawyer Leon Gan.
Gan said the previous City Council allocated only about P50 million to enroll those identified by the City Government "poorest of the poor" to the country's health insurance.
Moreno, however, asked more budget allocation to enroll another batch of beneficiaries. A move opposed by the previous council.
"Kay kung nisulod siya sa approved budget, nganung kinahanglan paman nga iratify or iconfirm sa karon nga city council? Kay buot pasabot, wala siya nasulod sa ensakto nga proseso mao ng kinahanglan nila ipaconfirm karon," Gan said.
"We are opposing this because this practice is prohibited under the law, it is prohibited to ratify appropriations that are already finished and already enacted," he added.
Gan, along with City Councilor lawyer Nadya Emano-Elipe, voted against the passage of the resolution. While Councilors Jun Acenas and lawyer Lordan Suan abstained.
By approving the resolution, Gan said it means that the City Council in one way or another, absolved the mayor for a fault or wrongdoing.
"This is an error committed by the executive, the mayor knew at that time that we only have allocated this much for the purpose of paying the Philhealth premium. But what happened? Because of politics, he paid so much to Philhealth. It's not a mistake if it is done in the right way, but the mayor is facing cases for paying too much to Philhealth, so this only means that we corrected his fault and that should not be the case. We cannot also change the act of the previous council," Gan told city councilors last Monday.
"I am very sure that the mayor and the executive department will use this resolution in order to cure that defect, they will use this at the Ombudsman so I will register my objection."
It can be recalled that Moreno’s critic William Guialani urged the Office of the President to initiate probe over the unrecorded yet released eight city hall checks amounting to P79 million.
Guialani said the amount was spent for the health insurance program.
Moreno's camp meanwhile admitted that the P79 million was spent for the payment of Philhealth premiums, and although it appeared "irregular", Moreno's lawyer Dale Mordeno said the move was actually legal, and it was done to outsmart the former city councilors who belonged to the opposition group.
It was the mayor's discretion to spend the P79 million to Philhealth, his lawyer pointed out.
Gan said the resolution that was passed last Monday was to "correct" the mayor's fault for these payments.
"While we support this program, it was done illegally so we opposed its passage, because when the time comes, we will not be held liable for this mistake," added Gan. (With reports from Darlene Burnea, FSUU intern/SunStar Cagayan de Oro)