Court holds off Toledo budget

CEBU, Philippines - The Regional Trial Court has stopped the disbursement of the P619 million annual budget of Toledo City reportedly passed by only three councilors during a special session.

RTC Executive Judge Hermes Montero of  Branch 59 in Toledo City issued a 72-hour temporary restraining order Tuesday and has set on April 23 the hearing for the petition filed by the majority members of the Council.

“This Court is convinced that there is a need to issue a Temporary Restraining Order on the basis of extreme urgency and necessity so as to obviate grave injustice and irreparable injury,” Montero said in a three-page order dated April 15, 2014.

City Councilors Ricardo Pepito, Antonio Borja Jr., Rogelio Caburnay, Louis Nicholas Espinosa, Helen Jill Espinosa and Edgardo Aguilar had earlier filed a petition for the declaration of City Ordinance known as “Appropriation No. 2014-001” null and void, prohibition, TRO and writ of preliminary injunction against Mayor John Henry Osmeña, Vice Mayor Antonio Yapha Jr., Councilors Leo Dolino, Merly Abad and Zosimo Abellanosa.

They alleged that there was no quorum during the special session when the questioned ordinance was passed on March 27.

Present during the session were Yapha as presiding officer, Pepito, Dolino, Abad, Abellanosa and Helen Jill Espinosa, who heads the Council’s committee on budget and appropriations.

Despite the objection raised by Pepito, Yapha reportedly declared the presence of a quorum, justifying that he is also a member of the Council and should be counted as such.

A two-minute recess was called, but while Pepito and Helen Jill were out of the session hall, the session was reportedly called to order and was resumed with only Dolino, Abad, and Abellanosa present and eventually passed the annual budget.

“And to top it all on that same date, the assailed Ordinance known as Appropriation No. 2014-001 was then written down, signed and attested to as ‘Unanimously Carried’ by the Vice Mayor Antonio Yapha, Jr., despite full knowledge of the opposition of the members of the SP majority and despite lack of quorum and approval of the simple majority of members constituting a quorum,” the petition reads.

On that same day, March 27, Osmeña approved the controversial ordinance. —(FREEMAN)