Capitol chiefs in the 'line of fire' over Budget deliberations
Vice Governor Rolex Suplico, chair of the Committee on Appropriations, is insisting on the presence of Capitol chiefs in the ongoing deliberations of the 2009 Executive Budget.
As such, he wrote his uncle, Governor Niel Tupas Sr., to reconsider an earlier decision prohibiting attendance of said department heads.
Invoking a provision in the Updated Budget Operations Manual for Local Government Units, the vice governor "appealed" to Tupas.
To note, resource persons in the current budget discussions all come from the Local Finance Committee with members of the Committee on Appropriations unable to get desired answers.
"The members of the said committee has noticed that the members of the Local Finance Committee cannot answer questions pertaining to technical aspects of each office/department," excerpts of the vice governor's letter went.
And as Suplico pointed out, the government's Budget Operations Manual clearly demands on office chiefs "to make themselves available and upon request of the Sanggunian, appear before that body or the Committee on Appropriations to explain or justify their proposals…"
Specific aspects defined by the manual include explanation on the objectives, functions and corresponding projects of the office/department and their relevance to the total development effort of the local government unit.
Presence of the department heads is also deemed necessary in order to explain "accomplishment of the office or department for the preceding fiscal year particularly, the extent to which it has met its target."
"In this connection, it is requested that you reconsider your decision as stated in your October 22, 2008 letter to the undersigned stating that department heads and chiefs of offices will no longer attend the hearings," Suplico wrote.
In Friday's budget hearing, not a single department head showed up. Scheduled deliberations continue this week.
Barely a day after Vice Govenor Rolex Suplico wrote Governor Niel Tupas Sr. on the matter of changing the governor's stance prohibiting the presence of Capitol chiefs, Tupas was quick with his reply.
"You cited the "Updated Budget Operations Manual for Local Government Units" as basis for seeking the appearance of these officials before the committee," the governor began. "It is still fresh in my memory that you plainly dismissed the "Updated Budget Operations Manual for Local Government Units" as a "mere guideline" when you ignored the issued I raised in my veto message with respect to Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-01-a. In case you have forgotten, you chose to ignore specific guidelines contained in the Manual and proceeded to override the veto on the subject ordinance. And now you are invoking that same Manual in seeking the appearance of these officials."
As such the governor was adamant – "No, these officials will not attend the hearings."
"Moreover, our experience with the Sanggunian in the conduct of the committee hearings have been unpleasant, and not in any way productive. These hearings have consistently turned out to be inquisitions where the purpose was to harass, intimidate, insult and humiliate department heads and chiefs of hospitals. Questions propounded did not dwell on the issues at hand, but rather, the hearings were used as vehicles for political propaganda. We do not want to subject our department heads to such humiliation and harassment," the governor ended.