GREEN FIRE TRUCK. This new fire truck parked inside the Army Support Command on Arellano Street, Barangay Tinago is among the items bought by the barangay using the P8 million assistance from the Cebu City government. The Commission on Audit in Central Visayas wants the P800 million aid to barangays, including what was given to Tinago, returned as it lacks city council approval. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Cebu City Legal Officer tells barangays to ignore disallowance of P800 million aid
Officials of the Cebu City government have questioned the haste of the Commission on Audit (COA) in ordering the return to the city coffers of money already distributed by Mayor Michael Rama to the different barangays, and yesterday sent word to village chiefs to ignore the COA order instead of complying.
Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, a lawyer who once served as Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas said: “We are surprised because the COA went straight to the disallowance when there is a process.”
According to Labella, prior to the Notice of Disallowance (ND), a memorandum should first have been issued by COA asking the city to explain the expenditure.
“COA would first give an Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) to a concerned local government unit. The concerned office will then give their explanation in answer to the AOM. After which, a Notice of Suspension should first be given by COA before a Notice of Disallowance eventually,” Labella said of the usual procedure.
The same observation was shared by City Accountant Mark Rossel Salomon since his office is usually the first to receive communications from COA. He was surprised to see an ND without giving the city a chance to explain.
Salomon said they are still collating all the notices that were sent by COA to the barangays that received the aid. Of the city’s 80 barangays, only three to four were still to receive their aid allocations from the city.
A check by Cebu Daily News earlier showed that some barangay captains have already used up the aid, some were kept intact, while others have not received their shares at all. Of the barangays that received the aid, only those who belong with Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) might be able to return the money as it reached them later than the aid given to barangays aligned with Rama.
In defense of himself and of the multimillion peso funding he readily gave to the city’s barangays last year, Rama vowed to fight the COA’s order.
Of the P800 million allotted as barangay aid, the city government has released P564,707,265.50 to most of the city’s barangays.
However, in an order dated Feb. 11, 2016, COA disallowed the expense, saying that the required authorization of the Cebu City Council on the list and cost of projects that were to be implemented was not followed.
COA pointed to a provision in the city’s Appropriation Ordinance No. 2417 or the 2015 annual budget which said that before the aid could be released, the concerned barangay should first submit a development plan and ask for the council’s approval for the project to be funded by the aid. The ND was addressed to Rama, Acting City Accountant Mark Rossel Solomon, Acting City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas, City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia and each of the barangay that received the aid.
“That has to be handled by my lawyer. Why only now? We have to be thinking about the past. It’s always been there. I cannot imagine, ila ipalukot ang semento (do they want us to roll up the concreted roads)?” Rama told reporters in a phone interview yesterday.
Still in Manila, Rama said he will meet with City Hall lawyers and officials as soon as he gets back to determine whether the city should file an appeal with COA Region 7 or file a case in court.
Meantime, as officials figure out what their next step should be, City Attorney Jerone Castillo gave this advice to barangay captains yesterday: “Proceed. Go ahead. There is sufficient legal basis for the aid. We have studied this carefully before we allowed this,” Castillo said.
Castillo also assured the city’s barangay captains that there was no reason to be afraid.
QUISUMBING VS GARCIA CASE
In disallowing the expense, COA’s supervising auditor in Cebu City Cymbeline Celia Chiong-Uy cited a 2008 Supreme Court ruling in the case of then Provincial Board (PB) Member Luis Gabriel Quisumbing against Cebu’s Governor, Gwendolyn Garcia. The case stemmed from Garcia’s disbursement of provincial funds in the absence of PB authority.
However, Castillo believes the SC decision on Quisumbing vs. Garcia, which was made the basis of the ND, is “misplaced” as it referred to general infrastructure projects.
“Number one, the aid to barangays does not involve infrastructure projects. Number two, this is already properly defined as aid to the city’s 80 barangays. It doesn’t need to go back to the City Council,” Castillo said. A similar opinion was given to them by the City Accountant’s Office when asked last year, he added.
Castillo also cited an Ombudsman decision clearing Rama and other city officials for not seeking council approval before entering into a contract for an embankment project in the South Road Properties (SRP) in 2012. In that decision, the Ombudsman cited the same Quisumbing vs. Garcia case.
“Should the appropriation ordinance for instance, already contain in sufficient detail the project cost of a capital outlay such that all the local chief executive needs to do after undergoing the requisite public bidding is to execute the contract, no further authorization is required, the appropriation ordinance already being sufficient,” the decision said.
Castillo said this will all be part of an explanation that will be made by the city government in appealing the ND before COA 7.
For his part, Labella said: “The COA disallowance is subject to the review mechanism and exhaustion of administrative remedies. Thereafter all the remedies, it’s the prerogative of the executive to exhaust legal remedies.”
WELCOME RELIEF
Barangay captains welcomed Castillo’s advice to ignore the COA order.
Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) President Philip Zafra said about ten barangay captains have called him to raise concern over the disallowance.
“It does not necessarily mean nga nahadlok sila but ang ilang concern is that nagasto na nila ang kwarta (It does not necessarily mean that they are scared, they are just concerned because they have already spent the money),” he said.
“If that’s the legal opinion, then it’s favorable. We’re happy. When we received these aid, dako kaayog nahimong tabang sa atong mga (it’s been a great help for our) barangays to financially support our priority projects,” he said.
Zafra, the barangay captain of Tisa, said he earlier ordered a status quo on some barangay projects funded by the P10 million aid, such as flood mitigating measures including improvement and construction of drainage lines, road concreting and the purchase of a brand new fire truck.
Zafra, who also has to sign the Programs of Works and Estimates by the different barangay captains before they could use the aid, said most of the barangays use the aid for drainage projects, road concreting and construction of buildings. Some want to purchase new vehicles like garbage trucks, fire trucks and ambulances.
Cambinocot Barangay Captain Rey Lauron said he will continue using the P8 million he received from the city government.
He said it has helped his constituents since part of the aid was used to pay for P1.7 million worth of medical assistance given to around 20 people who had to be checked and admitted to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
“There’s still around P6 million left. But there are still a lot of patients from my barangay that are asking for assistance. I won’t refuse them even with the disallowance because I believe in the legality of this aid that the city gave us,” he said in Cebuano.
They also plan to use the aid mostly on infrastructure projects as well as on education and health programs for Barangay Cambinocot.
Buhisan Barangay Captain Gremar Barete intends to pursue the bidding of infrastructure projects and purchases that will be funded from the barangay’s P8 million assistance.
“We haven’t received a copy of the disallowance so we will just continue implementation of pending projects. After we get a copy, we will consult with COA and DBM),” Barete, who is allied with BO-PK, said in Cebuano.
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