DBM chief urges Tupas, SP to settle budget row
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Rolando Andaya urged Iloilo Governor Niel Tupas Sr. and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) to resolve the issue regarding the executive budget of the Iloilo provincial government.
Andaya said the ongoing conflict, if not resolved the earliest possible time, will primarily affect the people of the province whom the said officials serve.
Andaya said matter regarding the executive budget will eventually be referred to their department for review and opinion.
Andaya said he's already familiar with the ongoing conflict between the provincial board and the governor as regards the budget.
The row between the governor and the provincial board erupted after the legislative body passed an ordinance fixing a budget of over P861 million out of the more than P1 billion Tupas has proposed.
Tupas and his pool of lawyers viewed the Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-01-a passed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan as ultra vires, prejudicial to the general welfare, illegal and unconstitutional hence null and void. They even filed a petition before the lower court to declare the said appropriations ordinance as invalid.
Andaya, who is a lawyer by profession, refused to categorically say whether Tupas's proposal is legal. There are technicalities that needs to be resolved in preparing an executive budget, he said
The budget secretary explained that a budget should be declared illegal when when the budget is much bigger than the income and there is an absence of mandatory requirements such as salary. A budget becomes "inoperative" when it lacks mandatory requirements.
Earlier, Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 66 based in Barotac Viejo, Iloilo denied the temporary restraining order asked by petitioner Rex Barber.
Barber's lawyer Atty. Eduardo Jalbuna, however said that they "maintain our stand that the budget as contained in Appropriation Ordinance (No. 2008-01-A) is very defective. We were not granted the TRO but it does not mean that said Ordinance is perfectly legal."
Barber through said counsel hurled Governor Niel Tupas Sr. and entire members of the 9th Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) to Court days after the SP in a legislative action chose to override the governor's veto.
Calling it a "pro-people Order," Vice Governor Rolex Suplico as presiding chair hailed the Court's denial of the TRO request.
Special Civil Action No. 2008-639 named Barbers as sole petitioner. His prayer for the TRO was anchored on the supposed damage to his plight being physically handicapped.
The Court ruled otherwise where in a three-paged Order, Judge Daniel Antonio Gerardo Amular, Assisting Judge of RTC Branch 66 averred how the petitioner failed to establish "his clear right to the peremptory extraordinary remedy of preliminary injunction….."
"I laud the RTC of Barotac Viejo for the pro-people order. This is a confirmation that indeed the Sangguniang Panlalawigan is not a rubber stamp sangguniang," Vice Governor Suplico said.
Same sentiments shared by First District Board Members Richard Garin and Macario Napulan and Ex-officio Board Member Celia Colada.
"It was a very just and appropriate decision..one that we were confident because we know that what we were standing on and pushing for are within the bounds of law," Garin said.
Colada for her part said she hopes that with the TRO denial the issue will finally be resolved and the province can move on.