BUDGET STILL STUCK

CEBU CITY HALL MARGOT PREVILEDGE SPEECH/OCT.07,2015:Cebu City Councilor Margot Osmeña talk to Cebu City hall employee having a rally and wear a black arm band on Supplemental Budget 1 as she arrived for their Council session.(CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Cebu City Council sits on P2.8 billion budget

Garbage trucks loaded with stinky trash parked close to City Hall.

A crowd of city government employees in white T-shirts and black armbands filled the Plaza Sugbu by 7 a.m.

Placard-bearing protesters greeted Cebu City councilors who arrived for their 9 a.m. session, where a P2.8 billion supplemental budget remains in limbo.

City Hall  and barangay employees demanded for the passage of the budget, which includes a one-month incentive for personnel.

The four-hour protest didn’t make a dent.

Voting 9-7, majority members of the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) suspended further budget discussion, citing  questions about the legality of spending proceeds from the sale of three lots in the South Road Properties (SRP).

The bulk of Supplemental Budget No. l or P2.4 billion was supposed to pay off the remaining Japanese loan for the 300-hectare SRP reclamation project.

What city employees wanted most to see carried was a P62.6 million portion for their Performance Enhancement Incentive (PEI).

Another P70 million outlay would have been spent for road improvements in SRP, and other public services.

“Soon, our trash won’t be collected properly, it will just lie in the streets and pollute our city. So many projects are affected by this delay,” Tinago barangay captain Joel Garganera told Cebu Daily News.

HOSTAGE

Councilor Margot Osmeña, majority floor leader and finance committee head, said the mayor’s office could identify other fund sources for the employees’ bonus but that SRP sales proceeds should not be touched until the court resolves the recent civil case filed by Basak San Nicolas resident Romulo T. Torres.

Torres’ petition for declaratory relief and injunction before the Regional Trial Court against Vice Mayor Edgar Labella and councilors questions the legality of selling the SRP lots by public bidding.

“You can’t hostage public service,” said Mayor Michael Rama after the session.

“Let them (BO-PK councilors) continue with their position and I will continue with mine.”

The mayor mingled awhile with the protestors after stepping out of his office about 9 a.m.

“This protest is one-of-a-kind. This was done so that those majority party councilors up there can see that SB-1 is not for me, not for them, but it’s for the people, who are gravely affected by the delay,” said the mayor.

Protest

The spectacle outside City Hall was preceded by text messages to City Hall and barangay employees on Tuesday night asking them to converge at Plaza Sugbu the next morning in whit T-shirts and black armbands “in protest of the continued refusal of the council majority to pass SB1.”

A similar message were sent to senior citizens and solo parents.  Employees stayed at the plaza till they dispersed before noon.

Some employees listened to the council deliberation through speakers placed at the entrance.

They cheered when the name of Team Rama councilors were called and made boisterous remarks when BO-PK councilors are called.

In a privilege speech, Councilor Gerardo Carillo of Team Rama, appealed “for us local legislators to stop quarreling” and find ways to resolve the budget impasse “by practicing good governance and by reviewing our accountability as “honorable” members of this council.””

When objections arose, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, presiding officer, called for a vote.

Nine  BO-PK allies voted to defer further budget talks until the court  case is resolved. They were  Osmeña, Sisinio Andales, Alvin Arcilla, Nestor Archival Sr., Roberto Cabarrubias, Alvin Dizon, Eugenio Gabuya Jr., Mary Ann De Los Santos and Nida Cabrera. (Councilor Lea Japson was out of the session hall during the voting.)

They  outnumbered seven Team Rama allies – Carillo, Dave Tumulak, James Anthony Cuenco, Phillip Zafra, Hanz Abella, Noel Wenceslao and Richard Osmeña.

BETRAYED

Cuenco, who also made a privilege speech, said he felt “betrayed, disgusted and angry” with the majority bloc’s refusal to discuss SB1.

“I can see the ugly hands of politics once again wreaking havoc on this very essential piece of legislation,” he said.

While he’s crossed party lines before to vote with BO-PK members, he said “this time around I howl in protest of the sinister maneuver of the majority bloc who has run roughshod on this budget ordinance.”

“I will not allow a phony like Romulo Torres to stymie and hold hostage our resolve to pay off the remaining balance of our SRP loan for which our people have been burdened by the P500 million a year bill we have to pay for interest alone,” he said.

Not to be outdone, Councilor Osmeña also delivered a privilege speech to air their side.

She said the mayor’s office could find other fund sources than the SRP lot sales to fund the city employees’incentives.

“We know that some of the items are of utmost importance like the PEI. That is why we looked for other sources of funds, P1.9 billion from Continuing Appropriations as far as 2007. Today, we asked for an updated continuing appropriations list. It consists of 30 pages of approved appropriations that have not been implemented amounting to P1.1 billion,” Osmeña said.

She also expressed surprise at the mass action outside City Hall.

She said her parking slot was occupied by a garbage truck.

Some City Hall offices were empty while employees were on protest like the Department for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) and the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs.

Among those who joined the “silent protest” was Probe head and city Market Administrator Raquel Arce.

Government employees are prohibited by law from staging a work stoppage or strike.

But a complaint has to be filed first before any investigation is made, said Prolaine Daclan, chief personnel specialist of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) 7.

Councilor Andale of BO-PK said protesting employees could be charged if names and photos are presented.

“We can file a case but we will not do that.  We will let someone else – a taxpayer do it,” he said.

Mayor Rama, in a press conference, said government employees have a constitutional right to air their grievances in a peaceful assembly.