Whether the non-appearance of many board members was deliberate or not, I have to salute the 6 of them who appeared for the supposed 116th Regular Session the other day, December 28, 2021, namely, Edwin N. Mintu, Diana Apigo-Tayag, Ernesto F. Jaravata, Eleonor B. Fajardo and Juanito D. Lumawig. Vice-Governor Peter J. Alfaro was also in attendance ready to preside the discussion of the Fiscal Year 2022 Local Expenditure Program (LEP) of the Province of Occidental Mindoro. But for lack of quorum, the important year-ending session did not happen.
In a notice signed by Jamela P. Haley, the board’s secretary dated 20 December 2021 and addressed to the members of the 13th Sangguniang Panlalawigan, they are all enjoined to attend the very important session for it would deliberate on the annual budget of the provincial government including those of municipal LGUs. On the same day before that, Governor Eduardo B. Gadiano issued a letter addressed to the legislators through Alfaro. Aside from the 2022 LEP, Gadiano appealed in the dispatch to authorize him in the disbursement of funds for FY 2022 due to certain expenditures such as salaries and wages, statutory and contractual obligations, and essential operating expenses.
Is the lack of quorum in the SP premeditated? Is this action of nonappearance orchestrated? You be the judge. But I have seen such crucial quorum issues in many instances in some local governments before.
Deliberate or not, nothing happened, ergo, they have to wait for some time to sit, discuss and finally approve a 2022 LEP. Those who were not able to make it because they are on leave are Emmanuel Abeleda Jr., Sonia Pablo, Michelle Festin Rivera, George Oreiro, and Trisha Kaye Fabic. Those absent are AJ Rebong, Philip Ramirez, Nestor Tria and, Abelardo Pangilinan. To cut the story short, the session was canceled. Usually, when there is no quorum, the presiding officer may declare a recess until such time that the quorum is reached. So, the request of the governor hangs in the balance. If any two of the four absent board members attended they could have had a quorum. But allow me to give them the benefit of the doubt, they might have valid unavoidable reasons for not coming to the session that day inside the holiday season.
Just to share, Section 53 of the Local Government Code declares, “(b)Where there is no quorum, the presiding officer may declare a recess until such time as a quorum is constituted, or a majority of the members present may adjourn from day to day and may compel the immediate attendance of any member absent without justifiable cause by designating a member of the sanggunian to be assisted by a member or members of the police force assigned in the territorial jurisdiction of the local government unit concerned, to arrest the absent member and present him at the session.” Well, instead, we will just wait for Godot like Vladimir and Estragon.
Aimed at the harmonization of local planning, investment programming, resource mobilization, budgeting, expenditure management, and performance monitoring and coordination in fiscal oversight, the Joint Monitoring Circular (JMC) No. 1 Series of 2016 by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Budget Management (DBM), and other concerned departments were issued. This became the basis for each region's formulation and implementation of the Synchronized Local Planning and Budgeting Calendar or the SLPBC. I just do not why our provincial government in general, then and now, overlooked this or were they aware of the importance of such a calendar imposed by said national government agencies through its regional offices (Please click HERE for the sample SLPBC from Region XII). The SLPBC is the template that is supposed to guide the board in this particular responsibility. Adherence to SLPBC is also one of the criteria for bestowing the Seal of Good Financial Housekeeping by the DILG. In many MLGUs in the province, the SLPBC is being followed, I was told.
Incidentally, of the two departments of local government, the executive holds the so-called power of the “sword” while the legislative branch has the power of the “purse”. While the latter is meant to be a technical tool that promotes more efficient and responsible local budgeting practices, both the power of the purse and the power of the sword can be weaponized and abused toward political ends. Not only in this particular case but under any administration, wherever and whenever, when controlled by either political groups or factions from all over the country.
Many were pleased when in 2019, both Gov. Ed and Vice-Gov. Peter and their respective officials settled a common Executive-Legislative Agenda (ELA) to synchronize the direction in governing the province but each year, the annual budget always passes through the eye of a needle. The executive and the legislative departments are at the start paddling in opposite directions despite the ELA. As a community striving for inclusive progress and development that has been locked for more than three decades with the same brand of politics, the people of Occidental Mindoro deserve something better beyond partisan politics and politicking.
With this predicament at hand, the people are upset. It is them who suffer most and as we are figuratively on the same boat equally as a province, we are cast to the vicious sea waves, drowned into the deep until the next legislative session in the first week of January.
Because the power of the purse is central to the Sanggunian’s functionality, this becomes their bargaining chip, the stick atop the carrot. It’s their ultimate armament and the LCE is always at their mercy in this particular instance. The best-observed check-and-balance norm in governance becomes a folly when the executive and the legislative branches are dominated by opposing personalities with extreme partisan political aims. If such aims become more vital than the common good.
But
the disruption of proceedings shows a lack of decorum especially if such
interruption is pre-planned or staged, which is very disturbing. If that is the
case, hypothetically speaking, it is ethically and legally wrong. Democracy
would be further strengthened based on constructive debates and discussion in a
proper venue and not by default or avoidance of specific legislative processes
or sessions. That is the proper decorum in achieving righteous politics.
We, the people, are urging you, our cherished leaders, to hold discussions on critical issues as ever, like the 2022 Local Expenditure Program, and trust each other just like how we trusted you when we voted, hired you when you applied to your present positions 3 years ago.
We, the people, are entitled to see that both of your functions are done in the fastest best-calculated manner to achieve our desired goal over and above political affiliations and persuasions.
The next session of the august body is on January 4, 2022, the fourth day of the current election year. A date that is marked in global political history as the battle between Julius Caesar and Titus Labiernus in 46 BC and was called the Battle of Ruspina. Make the deliberation a battle of wits and objectively bang opinions, grind and weigh things rigid if necessary, so please be present and greatly consider the people’s general welfare or the common good.
As we start our journey as a community in 2022, mutual trust is all that we ask of you, noble people both in the executive and legislative branches of our province.
Mutual trust brings proper decorum that does not solely rest on numbers or quorum.
Anyways, Happy New Year, Honorables!
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(Photo:
Oliver Roldan)
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