Mayor's office blamed for non-passage of P740M budget

BAGUIO CITY (Dec. 22) — The Baguio City council yesterday concluded this year’s budget deliberations by not acting on the proposed P730 million 2006 executive budget and blamed the failure of the office of the city mayor to submit needed documents to support the proposal.

Councilor Elmer Datuin, chair of the council committee on laws said the council can not do anything but to work on a reenacted budget in 2006. This year’s budget of P712 million will be the basis of government spending during the first few months until an approved budget is finally passed.

According to Datuin, the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) and the Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) were not submitted when Mayor Braulio D. Yaranon forwarded the proposed budget in October this year.

The MTDP is a three-year development plan while the AIP is a 365-day development plan. The AIP takes at least 20% of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) of the city from the national treasury. Last year, this reached a ceiling of P100 million but Yaranon reduced it to P40 million in 2005, according to Datuin.

“This will have an adverse effect on the people of Baguio,” Datuin said. He added that the coming year’s budget will pass through the proverbial eye of the needle at the regular council sessions next year and would surely cause a delay in the implementation of social services.

This is not the first time that the budget approval was delayed by the AIP, based on previous years’ experience of the city council. The deliberation on priority projects to be financed from the 20 % development fund is the most time-consuming as the council has to carefully review the big volume of requests received from various barangays.

The delay in the submission of the AIP should have been expected as Yaranon said in his budget message, to make way for a verification process of all department and sector-based proposals “to ensure maximization of resources and consistency with the development direction set through the CDC.”

Evelyn Lorenzo, secretary to Yaranon said the CDC approved Resolution No. 04 adopting the city development framework plan and the meticulous verification process in prioritizing programs. She said this was to ensure fair and prudent prioritization amid the large volume of proposed projects submitted as against the meager budget allotted for the 20 percent development fund which amounts to only P50 million in the proposed budget.

The mayor upheld the CDC decision that development projects should be properly rationalized and prioritized to address all the sectoral needs raised in the CDC planning congress as captured in the resolution of the CDC execom whose members include Vice Mayor Peter Rey Bautista, Association of Barangay Council President Raffy Panagan, non-government organizations and sectoral representatives.

“To submit a simple listing of project titles (as what was done in the past), defeats the essence of development planning. At best the AIP should be responsive to the sectoral needs and to ensure this, a prudent verification of project proposals should be done,” the mayor said.

Lorenzo said the CDC is presently verifying over a thousand submitted proposals which include not only new projects but also those unfunded development projects during the previous years. Considering the volume, the verification process will really need time, she said.

Datuin also explained that even the 2005 supplemental budget of P44 million which was cut down to only P16 million by the city council has not yet been passed because the council questioned an item on the solid waste management. This will again add up to the P680 million deposited by the city treasury in a bank, Datuin lamented.

Earlier, Councilor Edilberto Tenefrancia commented that at the end of the year it is presumed that the budgeted funds have been spent totally on projects and services. City Treasurer Thelma B. Manaois and City Budget Officer Leticia O. Clemente earlier reported to the council that the bank balance was due to non-implementation of some projects and programs.

Datuin, however said that personnel services will be assured of funds under the reenacted budget. He said that it is the development projects and the capital outlay that will be affected by the delay in the budget deliberations. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS with reports from Aileen P. Refuerzo/BC PIO

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