Guv's double veto up in today's session
Members of the 9th Iloilo Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) will tackle in today's regular session the double veto of Governor Niel Tupas Sr.
The governor exercised anew his veto power over budget issues here. Particular of which were Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-04 Series of 2008 and Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-03.
Calendared as "Urgent Measures" of the 40th regular session, set to be addressed are the September 23 and 24, 2008 letters of Tupas on said appropriation ordinances. The governor believed that both are "ultra vires and prejudicial to the public welfare."
Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-04 Series of 2008 granted authority to V ice Governor Rolex Suplico to augment specific items from savings in the Maintenance and Other Operating Expense (MOOE) under the SP.
Said augmentation was to be made to other accounts of the same class of expenditures in the re-enacted 2007 annual budget.
"..the enactment of this ordinance is superfluous and unnecessary," Governor Tupas said.
Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-03 Series of 2008 on the other hand amended Appropriation Ordinance No. 2007-04 Series of 2007. The amendments stated that limited authority was then granted to the governor. And as such, he was only to augment any item in the savings of the MOOE in order to address the need for more funds for the inmates' food supplies expense.
"The Province of Iloilo is currently operating on the Re-enacted 2007 Annual Appropriations, including all its supplemental budget. This re-enactment also encompasses all the authority to augment items from savings from the same class or category of expenditures," the second veto went. "Hence, as this re-enactment is a mechanism provided for by law, all the items contained therein are not subject to amendment by the Sanggunian. It is in fact the Local Chief Executive who is given the power to determine the essential operating expenses."