EDITORIAL - Meager appropriation

As expected, the executive branch of the Cebu City government is crying foul over the slashing by the City Council of the budget for the intelligence fund next year. While Mayor Michael Rama remains silent as to the effects of a reduced appropriation, his chief of staff, Philip Zafra, said it may affect the campaign to maintain peace and order in the city.

Of the P24.8 million budget for the intelligence fund that the executive branch proposed for 2012, the City Council only approved P500,000, which is a far cry from the P6 million that it approved for this year.

The proposed P24.8 million budget for intelligence fund is part of P115 million allocation that is proposed for the city’s peace and order next year. But the City Council, seemingly realizing the amount is too huge for a certain appropriation, reduced it to P56 million.

The executive branch has all the right to complain about the council’s approval of a meager intelligence fund.Rama and his allies can only see it as an insult to the city’s inhabitants, whose daily toil largely defends on efficient peace and order management.

For a city regarded as the biggest outside Metro Manila, an intelligence budget of only P500,000 can hardly make a dint in effort to maintain peace and order. The amount will hardly give an impact to the city’s campaign to promote the city as a safe place for tourists and business.

How can a city as progressive as Cebu City maintain peace and order for a whole year with a P500,000 intelligence fund? Can such a meager budget be enough to support the drive to improve the city’s image greatly battered by daily occurrence of killings and robberies?

As the public sees it, this development is part of the ongoing animosity between the executive branch and the City Council, a body which is very subservient to will of a former mayor.           

Well, of course, there’s nothing wrong with any political fight between any branches of the government. It’s part of the game in a democratic society.

But to engage in a conflict that greatly affects the welfare of the public is certainly another story.