Talisay to operate on last year’s budget?

CEBU, Philippines – The Talisay City government will be possibly operating on a reenacted budget starting this month after the City Council has not yet passed and approved the city's budget as submitted by Mayor Johnny De los Reyes.

The proposed budget amounts to P731.6 million, which is over 40 percent higher than 2014's P516 million allocation.

Vice Mayor Romeo Villarante, who is the council presiding officer, said   majority members of the council are willing to wait until the first regular session of next year as they need to deliberate and pass the budget ordinance.

Villarante, a former ally of Mayor Johnny De los Reyes, clarified that it was not an intention of the council to delay the approval of the budget but there are certain issues and items of the budget that need to be elaborated and explained.

"We have been meeting and doing series of discussions with the local finance committee pag-October pa. Since we are running out of time to pass the budget and we are given until December 31, most probably we are operating on a reenacted budget starting January 1, 2015," Villarante told The Freeman.

Villarante said they are scrutinizing all the items in the budget, including the proposal of the mayor for a P10 million intelligence fund and some allocation of P4 million for the Mananga Task Force, which is under the city mayor's office.

Villarante explained that there was already shortage of funds and collection of money especially in the third and fourth quarter of 2014, which resulted to some delays on payments of salaries to job orders.

"We will scrutinize everything so that what happened before will not happen again. If you remember, there was realignment of budget because of the unsound fiscal systems," he added.

Majority Floor Leader Richard Francis Aznar also clarified that they want every single amount of money to be properly itemized and properly appropriated.

"We are scrutinizing everything. We see to it that the amount is based on the actual needs of the office," Aznar said.

According to Aznar, he already informed some members of the council if the council is willing to hold special session dedicated only for the discussion and approval of a new budget but all are into agreement that the matter will be discussed on a regular session.

"It is not totally the fault of the SP why the 2015 annual budget was not approved before 2014 ended," Aznar said, adding that as part of the requirement, the SP requested for the specifics of the 2015 annual budget.

Since the city government will be operating on a reenacted budget in January, Villarante said the city expects that there will be no projects that can be implemented for the meantime and hiring of job orders will be temporarily stopped, except those working for essential services and garbage collection and other some offices where the job orders are detailed.

Villarante said the council has 90 days from the start of the present fiscal year to approve a new budget and if no budget is approved after that period, the local government unit will have to reenact the budget in the previous fiscal year.

Under the local government code, if "the sanggunian concerned fails to pass the ordinance authorizing the annual appropriations at the beginning of the ensuing fiscal year, it shall continue to hold sessions, without additional remuneration for its members, until such ordinance is approved, and no other business may be taken up during such sessions."

If the sanggunian still fails to enact such ordinance after 90 days from the beginning of the fiscal year, the ordinance authorizing the appropriations of the preceding year shall be deemed reenacted and shall remain in force and effect until the sanggunian approves a new budget.

However, only the annual appropriations for salaries and wages of existing positions, statutory and contractual obligations (such as loans), and essential operating expenses authorized in the annual and supplemental budgets for the preceding year shall be deemed reenacted and disbursement of funds shall be in accordance therewith.

Separately, Mayor De los Reyes is hopeful that the council will act swiftly on the approval of his budget without slashing the same in order that the basic services of the Talisaynons will not be affected.

The mayor assures that his administration is transparent, especially on his submitted proposed annual budget.

"Sa katapusang mga adlaw, hukman ta sa taga-Talisaynon kung atong gihimo para ba sa katawhan o pamolitika lang ba gyud aron dili ta kalihok," De los Reyes added.