Negros Occ. PB okays P2.6B Budget for 2013

BACOLOD CITY , Philippines   â€” The Provincial Board approved the 2013 Annual Budget of the Negros Occidental government amounting to P2.6 billion, on Wednesday during its first regular session after the midterm elections.

The approved budget represented P1,912,059,008 for general fund and P690,149,879 for the Economic Enterprise Development Department. This was unanimously approved on third and final reading upon "mass motion" of PB Member Salvador Escalante Jr., finance committee chairman.

It took the PB to deliberate on the budget for at least seven months, but last Wednesday, it only took the body only 10 minutes to approve it.

Present at the session were 10 PB members: Escalante himself, Pedro Zayco, Helen Zafra, Melvin Ibañez, Raul Rivera, George Gitano, Nehemias Dela Cruz, Miller Serondo, Jose Benito Alonso and Mae Javellana who was named the presiding officer.

Conspicuously absent were PB Members Patrick Lacson, now vice governor-elect, and Manuel Frederick Ko, who were blocking earlier the approval of the budget, Emilio Yulo III, Renato Gustilo, Thea Mae Diño and Vice Gov. Genaro Alvarez Jr, who lost in his gubernatorial bid and filed a vacation leave from May 15 to 31.

The approval of the budget was stalled since late last year when the PB disapproved it by a vote of 9-5. This was around the time when Alvarez, who heads the PB, challenged and lost by 170,000 votes the re-election bid of Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. in the last election.

Since last January, the provincial government had been operating on a re-enacted 2012 Budget, and last Monday, Marañon appealed anew to the PB for the 2013 Budget approval "The election is over. Let us leave politics behind. Let us work together for the progress of the province. I appeal to the PB to approve the budget already," he said.

Marañon told the PB the budget approval was important because it is needed by the people, particularly the 2,300 Capitol employees.

Because the Supplemental Budget for this year was not included in the 2012 Budget, the governor said many basic services of the provincial government, such as health services, were affected, and that the Capitol workers could not claim their P20,000 extra bonus, as well as the fourth tranche of their salary hike, as mandated by law.

The Progressive Alliance of Capitol Employees (PACE) was also calling on the PB to spare it from politicking by approving the budget.

PACE president Ruben Diamante said his organization filed last month criminal and administrative charges against the vice governor and all PB members before the Office of the Ombudsman for the Visayas, for their failure to approve the 2013 Budget.

With the budget already approved, Diamante yesterday said PACE will wait for the decision of the Ombudsman on its complaint. "If the Ombudsman says the case is already moot and academic, then we will respect it," he said.

But for now, since the case was a collective action of all PACE members and officers, he could not prematurely say about the group's decision about it. "We'll just wait for the Ombudsman decision, before we decide on our next action," he added.  (FREEMAN)