Trivia: On January 18, 1854, exactly 128 years ago today, William Walker proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of Sonora in NW Mexico. Walker was an American physician, lawyer, journalist, and mercenary who organized several private military expeditions into Mexico and Central America to occupy the local nations and establish slave-hold colonies, a venture then known as "filibustering". It was in this sense that Jose Rizal used the word in his second novel El Filibusterismo about the Spanish presence in the Philippines.
But the word legally used today has a different meaning. Now it means the use of obstructive tactics in a legislature, by excessive use of technicalities to prevent action by another group. Since language is dynamic, its meaning changed during the epoch of colonization in the times of William Walker and Jose Rizal to the post-foreign colonial era of Governor Eduardo B. Gadiano and Vice-Governor Peter J. Alfaro here in Occidental Mindoro.
Another trivia: Yesterday, January 17, 2022, VG Alfaro sent an invitation letter to Gov. Gadiano inviting him to join the Committee of the Whole to, “discuss and present personally to the Legislative Body the integrity of his proposed budget … " But apparently, the province’s Local Chief Executive snubbed the invitation from the legislative branch. He got hold of himself firm and unshaken.
Truly, a budget can be analyzed in three distinct ways: as policy, as politics, and as influencing outcomes. Budgets are more than authorizations to spend money, at times, it has a splash of politicking in them especially if those who head the legislative and executive branches do not belong in the same political zoo or they have an Edgar Bergen kind behind them. Having it discussed here is more on the intricacies of the budget as politics in the context of the present gridlock in Occidental Mindoro. Some might find these mere trivialities but I do understand.
As I have emphasized in my previous blog entry titled "Gadiano and Alfaro, A Tug-of-War On Budget", it is with very high probability that the provincial government, with the unfinished deliberation on the 2022 Local Expenditure Program (LEP), has no other choice but to settle for a reenacted budget for FY 2022.
Rules have it that the reenacted budget kicks in 90 days and it will fall on March 30, 2022, as the re-enacted budget kicks in permanently for the whole fiscal year. The election ban will begin on March 25 so, if the 2022 Annual Budget would only be passed and approved after that, say, on March 26 onwards, it would be useless or inutile.
In that case, even if we have an approved 2022 Annual Budget by then, no new programs could be implemented and no appointments for the needed workforce in its delivery of service to the people who had been deprived of a new brand of political leadership for decades would be employed.
Legally, what are the effects of Re-Enacted Budget? According to DILG Opinion No. 30, Series of 2015 (July 22, 2015), it has implied disadvantages such as no creation of positions, no new program projects, and activities, no utilization in the increase of IRA allocation for the year since the same is not covered by an Appropriation Ordinance, non-implementation of non-recurring activities no matter how vital they may be, and no supplemental appropriations are allowed.
Moreover, the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB), an inter-agency body regulating government procurement, has already issued a warning on the observance of a 45-day ban on new projects consonant with the forthcoming May elections. Nonetheless, the GPBB said that it will be up to the COMELEC to approve election ban exemptions on specific goods and services in line with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The move, from the looks of it, was indeed very clever and very calculated and precisely orchestrated. It happened before and it is still happening today. But I am sure the governor already saw it coming so he is not surprised. But hope springs eternal for the win-win solution on this gridlock.
But this isn’t only an issue of policy in legislation. Of all the checks and balances inscribed in every code, in every letter, and every intent of every law or jurisprudence in the land, the most significant is the right of the citizens, especially the poor and the marginalized who are fed up with old brand leadership, to replace those who are serving them poorly and only wants to perpetuate themselves to power ad infinitum. Here and elsewhere.
As I have said, the ultimate resting place of all blatant use of obtrusive tactics is figuratively the square-shaped ballot box. It is where such candidates can be cornered. Or on the circle of public opinion where they could be “rounded-up”. Hope this tug-of-war would end soon.
And that deserves another trivia someday.
*********
(TAILPIECE: This news came to me late. The Sangguniang Panlalawigan, having a quorum and the participation of department heads as resource speakers and perhaps pressured by the situation, finally started the deliberation through physical and online appearances on the 2022 Local Expenditure Program as of 10:00 AM today, January 18, 2022, and intends to resume it tomorrow. Thanks, God for such a change of heart by our leaders in two branches of our local government and greatly considering the welfare of our people, albeit very much delayed. As I stand by my story, my salute to all of you!- NAN)
No comments:
Post a Comment