Capitol hears plight of unpaid Estancia job hires
Mayor decries ‘vested personal interests’ of oppositors on budget release
The plight and sad fate of street sweepers and tax collectors in the Municipality of Estancia, Iloilo has now officially reached the attention of the Capitol.
Unpaid and apparently caught in between the political divide here, the workers dubbed as “job hires” were forced to launch a protest.
Mayor Restituto Mosqueda in a report made to Governor Niel Tupas Sr. explained the nature of said protest while assuring the governor of his “apolitical” stance.
The rally, Mayor Mosqueda said, “was conducted peacefully and orderly,” triggered by the delay of the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) to act on Supplemental Budget No. 1.
“As a backgrounder, the 2009 Executive Budget was submitted to the SB on October 15, 2008 which was approved on January 14, 2009 through Appropriation Ordinance No. 2009-01, while the Annual Investment Program (AIP) was approved only on March 4, 2009 through Resolution No. 2009-30. Both were transmitted to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) on March 19, 2009,” the mayor’s letter to Tupas went. “The 2009 Budget was declared “inoperative in its entirety” by the SP in June 2009 due to a glaring deficiency of almost Php 9 million between the proposed expenditures and estimated income, an oversight committed by the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) of this municipality.”
Oversight and all, Mayor Mosqueda noted how “some recalcitrant members” of the SB led by Vice Mayor Rodoel Aclaro “focused on other issues and continue to sabotage the administration of the incumbent, the delay of the approval of the Supplemental Budget included.”
Such alongside “vested personal interest and political ambitions,” the mayor decried. Yet “to this date,” Mayor Mosqueda told Governor Tupas, “he remains open for reconciliation with repentant wannabes and political opportunists for the greater interest of Estancia and its constituents.”