CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A minority legislator here has said that budget deliberations at the city council should be scheduled to enable them to carefully examine the programs and projects of each department and determine if enough money has been earmarked for these.
ABBU (FB)
“If you see something to scrutinize, all the better. But if there’s none, it is not necessary that you grill (them) because that’s not how the budget deliberation should be,” Councilor Jose Pepe Abbu Jr. said when asked to comment on the recent 2024 budget deliberations where the proposed annual budget was approved on the committee level within four hours.
Last November 7, the city council committee of the whole conducted the 2024 executive budget hearing in a hotel here where the P11.2-billion proposed expenditure next year was approved by the panel, which, according to Abbu, was not conducted according to its usual procedure.
Abbu, together with three other minority councilors, Yvonna Yacine Emano, Agapito Eriberto Suan, and Christian Rustico Achas, abstained from approving the measure.
After five days, the proposed annual budget under Ordinance No. 2023-331 was presented to the plenary during the city council session on November 13 where it was passed on third and final reading.
In the province of Misamis Oriental, where Cagayan de Oro is geographically situated, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan took almost a week to deliberate their proposed P5.7-billion budget for 2024, half of the budget of this city.
Misamis Oriental Provincial Administrator John Venice Ladaga said that the council had just finished the deliberation and the proposed annual budget is set to be presented in the plenary next week.
Abbu was asked if Cagayan de Oro’s budget for 2024 was properly deliberated, Abbu did not directly answer the question, saying he didn’t have specific knowledge on the programs and budget of other departments as he wasn’t able to raise a question.
Minority Floor Leader Councilor James Judith II, on the other hand, said he checked the entire budget prior to the deliberation and coordinated with some of the department heads, especially those offices that have connections to his approved ordinances.
“So, on my part, what are the questions that need to be asked? Just those basics, and I studied before (the deliberation),” Judith said.
City councilors received the hard copy of the annual budget in the third week of October, two weeks before the deliberation.
Abbu said he doesn’t believe that the budget will be delayed if the deliberation isn't finished on November 7, saying that previous members of the council had timely passed the previous annual budget through the proper procedure.
In his online program on Facebook on November 17, former Mayor Oscar Moreno here doubted the city’s
revenues for 2023, which will be one of the sources for next year’s annual budget.
However, city Mayor Rolando Uy’s political spokesperson, BenCyrus Ellorin, said the Local Finance Committee had figured out how to meet revenue collection targets for 2024 through diligent and efficient collection of taxes like real property tax, business taxes, and other revenues.
He also said that there’s no need to raise current taxes or introduce new ones.