N. Ecija governor vetoes budget

PALAYAN CITY – Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Matias Umali vetoed last Friday the 2008 provincial budget approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) which slashed some P313,866,272 from the original version of P1.4 billion budget.

Umali said the reduced budget will paralyze the delivery of services of the provincial government, particularly the funding for 5,000 scholars of the province.

In a strongly worded 16-page veto message forwarded by provincial legal officer Alejandro Abesamis to the SP, Umali said the SP members should “listen to their collective conscience” for the welfare of Novo Ecijanos, as he dismissed the SP-approved budget as “illegal, inept, unrealistic and outright ridiculous.”

Earlier, Vice Gov. Edward Thomas Joson, the board’s presiding officer, and his majority faction slashed the budget, claiming that the governor could not justify where the requested P1.4-billion budget would be used.

He said the governor failed to convene the Provincial Development Council (PDC) purposely to make the short-term, mid-term and long-term goals.

Aside from Joson, those who signed the appropriation ordinance were board members Rommel Padilla, Raqueliza Agapito, Wilfredo Munsayac, Melchor Morales, Zaldy Matias, Romanito Juatco, Eric Daniel Salazar, Cesar Cucio and Lance Jarwin Santos, all of the Bagong Lakas ng Nueva Ecijna (Balane).

Board members Joseph Ortiz, Teresita Patiag, Romeo Borja Jr. and Edmund Abesamis. Except Patiag, they were all allies of the governor at the Lakas-CMD, abstained.   

Pointing to the SP, Umali said the ordinance that was passed and approved will create a crisis in social services, scholarships, information dissemination, efficiency of operations of the provincial government, and other areas where the people of Nueva Ecija are in dire need of assistance.

Umali said the slashed items set aside and transferred to the un-appropriated balance are “contrary to law ‘ultra vires’  or an act outside the scope of the powers conferred upon a corporation by the legislature.

He said it is prejudicial to public welfare and a clear-cut case of usurpation by the SP of the executive functions of the local executive.

He said he was puzzled that most of the proposed appropriation of fund items slashed by the SP had been consistently approved by the previous administration of Joson’s father, then governor Tomas Joson III.

Umali told the SP to “listen to their conscience” and use the budget as a vehicle for change, not in a way that will promote the political interests of a few groups at the expense of the welfare of Novo Ecijanos. 

He lamented that the SP attempted to remove funds for all vacant positions in different offices while keeping the vacant positions in its own office intact.

“Nueva Ecija has been shackled in the past by too many political barters which have fastened it to saddening economic decay.  This must not be allowed,”  he said, adding the majority faction should rise above “ political interests, and work for the good of the province as a whole.”

The governor also pointed out erroneous computations in the approved budget, noting how the SP pegged the total appropriation of funds to be P1,074,613,945, when it should be P1,086,251,534, a difference of almost P12 million.