The 2025 budget of the local government of Dumaguete is back on the table at the City Council.
The Dumaguete City Council, on motion of Councilor Joe Kenneth Arbas, revived the discussion of the budget on 2nd Reading after it was denied when it lost in the voting during the Feb. 7 session.
In the recent session, Councilor Jose Victor Imbo said what happened on Feb. 7 was “highly irregular” because the rules were still suspended when the motion to approve the budget was made by Councilor Jose Baldado.
Councilor Imbo added that the Council also did not have the numbers then, as it needed two-thirds of the members to be able to vote on the matter.
“The Majority is now trying to cure what happened last session. It was not us who killed the budget,” Councilor Imbo said.
In the recent Feb. 11 special session, Councilor Miguel Agustin “Tincho” Perdices said that since the Secretariat did not invite any guest or resource person, he moved for the adjournment of the session.
The Motion was approved over the objections of Councilors Karissa Tolentino-Maxino and Petit Baldado, who decried what he said was the “tyranny of numbers” and the “bullying by the Majority”, which he was once a part of.
With the approval of the Motion to Adjourn, the Feb. 11 special session was over in 24 minutes.
Dumaguete Vice Mayor Maisa Sagarbarria explained that she had no choice but to adjourn the session because there were no invited guests who could explain the items listed in the budget.
She cited that one question with the budget, for instance, is the item on traffic lights which was presented before the City Development Council as a “rent-to-own” expense, and which was disapproved.
The term then was simply changed to “purchase” of traffic lights, but the documents of which were not changed to reflect the new mode of acquisition, she added.
She said “rent-to-own” is completely different from a traditional “purchase”.
The Traffic Management Office will be invited to the next session to present their plan on how they could acquire the traffic lights with a budget of only P22.9 million. (AP)
