FOR not reaching a quorum, the Cebu City Council had to cancel its scheduled hearing on the city’s P9.8 billion revised 2016 budget yesterday afternoon.
Only seven councilors were present in yesterday’s session that was scheduled at 2 p.m. Members of the executive department’s Local Finance Committee (LFC) were also around by then.
By 3:20 p.m., Councilor Margarita Osmeña, who heads the committee on budget and finance, finally decided to cancel the budget hearing.
“We have to adjourn. We will have an arrangement so that it would be simpler the next time because we don’t have a quorum. We have a regular session tomorrow (today). I can ask them when can they appear,” she said.
Aside from Osmeña, other councilors who were present were Sisinio Andales, Gerardo Carillo, Noel Wenceslao, Dave Tumulak, Richard Osmeña, and Hanz Abella.
The council needed at least nine members to have a quorum.
Most of those absent were from the majority Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan bloc.
Asked about this, Osmeña said she thinks they may have been campaigning.
Among the concerns supposed to be discussed yesterday were the other sources of funds for the budget, actual expenses in the past year and other documents related to the budget.
City Administrator Lucelle Mercado, who is part of the LFC, is concerned over the delay in the budget deliberations.
“After this week, we only have two weeks before the elections. We are worried, especially the employees, since part of the budget is the mid-year bonus,” she said.