CEBU CITY – Tension marred the P842-million budget deliberation of Siquijor after some board members accused the vice governor of blocking the passage of the provincial budget.

SIQUIJOR Vice Gov. Mei Ling Quezon presides over the controversial session of the Provincial Board on May 30. (Contributed photo)

But Vice Gov. Mei Ling Quezon insisted the accusations against her by some board members were baseless.

A first version of the province’s annual budget was approved by the Provincial Board (PB) in December last year after a series of budget hearings, but last April, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) issued a letter citing several technical discrepancies in the document.

The province’s Local Finance Committee held a series of meetings to rectify the errors and implement the DBM recommendations so that the document can be resubmitted for approval.  

The corrected budget document was submitted to the PB last May 7. The committee on appropriations immediately set to work by reviewing, and conducting meetings.

Last May 14 and 21, the committee headed by Board Member Dindo Tumala submitted its report recommending approval. The vice governor then asked the PB to defer approval of the corrected budget, saying she still had questions about it, and promised to have it approved on May 28. 

Emotions ran high during the May 30 session that saw the vice governor order Board Member Erson Digal, a retired police general, to escort capitol consultant, lawyer Frank Dinsay, out of the session hall.

Since it was not his task to escort some people outside the session, Digal hesitated but the vice governor allegedly threatened him with contempt that forced him to enforce the order.

Municipality of Maria Mayor Roselyn Asok walked out of the session after she was not allegedly not acknowledged to speak.

Tension escalated when Board Member Deeiah Tumarong-Quio, the budget committee vice chairman, was also not allegedly allowed to speak.

Deeiah accused the vice governor of disrespecting the board members by also unceremoniously taking over as the chairman of the budget committee last week.

“Presentation of the budget has always been with us, the committee on appropriations. It should be with the committee on finance, following the manual on budget. For the previous calendar of business, the proponent is either Board Member Dindo Tumala as chairperson and me as vice person. So suddenly, when we had our last regular session, and the board members can attest to it, there were sudden changes on (the pages), where it made the change of chairmanship of the annual budget 2024, which is of course, our presiding officer,” narrated Deeiah.

“I was emotional because I saw Mayor Rose Asok that she wanted to speak out for me, I was asking for the floor but I was not allowed to present my key points;” Deeiah said.

Board Member Dindo Tumala, chairman of the committee on appropriations, said that before the session started, he raised his concern that they might be wasting their time discussing the annual budget after the procedure was not followed.

The vice governor allegedly told the board members that it was a meeting of the committee as a whole, even if the law states that a committee as a whole must be declared by a vote of majority of the PB members, and not by the vice governor alone.

The board members further lamented that the vice governor's behavior was dictatorial for allegedly delaying the approval of the budget.

“We had time for review and corrections. We will not allow that a single voice will prevail,” Board Member Meynard Asok said.