Lapu-Lapu City Vice-Mayor Celedonio “Celsi” Sitoy
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — The P3 billion proposed annual budget of Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan is good as dead.
This was revealed by Vice-Mayor Celedonio “Celsi” Sitoy who said that since the budget didn’t even pass their preliminary deliberations, and with Thursday, March 31, looming as the final deadline, the proposed budget is a goner.
“There is no more chance kay last day na namo sa Thursday, then we have not yet approved the preliminary documents,” Sitoy said.
Due to this, Sitoy said that the city would have to implement the reenacted budget last year worth more than P2 billion, for the whole year of 2022.
Earlier, opposition councilors explained that they cannot move forward in their budget deliberation, since they cannot invite department heads to appear in their sessions.
This is after Lapu-Lapu CityMmayor Junard “Ahong” Chan issued an order prohibiting department heads from attending the budget deliberations.
The Lapu-Lapu City Council is currently dominated by opposition councilors.
For Sitoy, who is an ally of the mayor, the department heads no longer need to attend the session, since the whole picture of the 2022 annual budget was already presented to them in the proposal.
“Dili na gyud unta kinahanglan. Ang importante lang unta mo-appear ang atoang budget officer, unya kay iapil man nila ang treasurer, iapil nila ang other departments, para nako dili naman kinahanglan unta,” he added. /rcg