It is still a tug-of-war and a stalemate between the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and the Executive Department, between Gov. Eduardo B. Gadiano and Vice-Governor Peter J. Alfaro, over the further deliberation and consequent approval of the province’s Fiscal Year 2022 Local Expenditure Program or LEP which was, due to lack of quorum, postponed on December 28, 2021.
As a response, Gov. Gadiano issued Memorandum No. 2022-001 directing all the department heads not to attend any of the following budget hearings scheduled from the 4th to 6th day of January 2022.
As
I have asserted in my previous blog entry titled “Of New Year, Quorum and Decorum,” posted December 30, 2021, our Provincial Legislative Board overlooked
the instruction fused in 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 agencies. The august body with
all negligence did not follow the Synchronized Local Planning and Budgeting Calendar
designated to local government units which are also incorporated in the Budget
Manual, Gadiano said.
This is what Gov. Gadiano is telling the people over a radio interview last week. He is strong in saying that he is putting the fate of the 2022 budget in the hands of the board members and the SP in general headed by Vice-Governor Peter J. Alfaro but not on a silver platter. He said in the emotionally-charged interview by Alex Del Valle on a paid broadcast called “Serbisyong Ganado Program” aired over 92.1 OneFM that some people will gonna pay for this for such is a dereliction of duty, according to the governor.
Is the governor right in saying that the SP is liable for dereliction of duty in this case? Apparently yes. Again, I am not a lawyer but a mere local chronicler and a researcher but if we are going to look deeper on Sections 458 and 323 of the LGC, the word used was "shall", denoting mandatory command. If the proposal denotes a flagrant and culpable unwillingness to perform duty as mandated by law, those responsible for such delay or refusal will be opening themselves to a possible administrative case of dereliction of duty, neglect of duty, or abuse of authority, as may be warranted by the evidence, which are grounds for disciplinary actions against elective officials under Section 60 (c) of the LGC. This is how DILG Opinion No. 46 states it. Well, an opinion is just an opinion but that opinion came from the DILG itself.
Gadiano ended the radio interview by saying that Occidental Mindoro is not progressing because of massive politicking through the years. Gadiano was elected only to said provincial seat last 2019. He is even wondering why delays of this kind did not happen before when the governor and the vice-governor belong to the same political group.
The most monumental gridlock between a governor and a vice-governor in Occidental Mindoro happened in June 2002 when Gov. Jose T. Villarosa and Vice-Gov. Ramon M. Atienza battled over the authority to sign certain purchase orders and maintenance expenses of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. The celebrated tug-of-war is now known as Atienza v. Villarosa G.R. 161081 dated May 10, 2005, ended in a Supreme Court Ruling. Both camps then accused each other of politicking and hampering the progress of the province for Villarosa and Atienza at the time, not unlike today, are on the opposite end of the political fence. That was exactly 20 years ago this year.
In 2016, a Budget Operations Manual for Local Government Units was issued as per DBM’s mandate under Section 354 of RA 7160 for local government units to improve and systematize methods, techniques, and procedures employed in the local budget process. The executive department under Gadiano has been religiously following such a manual according to him while the SP is mum on the issue of the budget calendar. Why did the SP have not deliberated it as scheduled which is from October to December 2021? This question was never been confirmed nor denied along with the alleged Php 5.5 cash advance of the provincial board for a certain meeting in Laguna.
Gadiano also accused the SP of being a rubber stamp and just been following orders of their political figurehead/s or patron. Nonetheless, RA 7160 specifically gives power to the local legislative bodies to review the executive budget and the power of appropriation, which is still in line with the ordinance enactment. There is a very thin line between this legal power and the kowtowing to the idiosyncrasies of their political king … or queen. As I have been telling for the nth time, the power of the purse can be weaponized and numbers can be tyrannical. They can tell their other excuses to the marines!
In their 18th Regular Session held January 11, 2022, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Committee of the Whole, after a hotly contested exchange between SBM Diana Apigo-Tayag, Bokal Nestor Tria, and Bokal Sonia Pablo whether to wait for the availability of the concerned department heads and resource persons or once and for all, the Board must deliberate it right there and then, the junta provincial will again send a third invitation letter to the concerned people from the executive branch to attend the scheduled deliberation on the 2022 LEP from Monday, January 17, 2022, onwards. As expected, both branches of provincial government might be at the end would settle for a reenacted budget for FY 2022.
If still, the concerned individuals will abide by the directive of Gov. Gadiano, one of the possible actions is for the legislative, if they wish as a collegial body, is to resort to a legal remedy against those poor employees who are just following orders from their immediate superior. If the potential resource persons will not attend, the SP might cite them for contempt invoking the Regional Trial Court (RTC) under Rule 7 of the Rules of Court of such a remedy.
Can the local legislative board itself punish the defiant in this particular case? Nope. DILG Opinion No. 25, Series of 2020 has it that the SP does not have subpoena power to punish for contempt. All they can do is to INVITE them if they are willing to supply information to the budget hearings. Moreover, per DILG Opinion No. 22, Series of 2009, in the exercise of legislative functions, any legislative body has no compulsory power to require persons to appear before it.
But resorting to RTC in such a remedy is political suicide. It would be a crazy thing to do especially now that election campaigning is near. The move will just gather ire and criticisms from the citizenry, specifically the voters or their relatives, for almost all of the incumbent SPs are aspirants for different political positions this coming election. Resorting to such legal action aimed at those in the executive is in zugzwang if it were a chess match. Besides, the budget gridlock is a political issue and not a legal one. Budget deliberation of the SP is more of in aid of legislation (e.g. appropriation ordinance) and not acting as a quasi-judicial body.
But people will in the end realize that the pains they are experiencing, including their communities, due to unstarted infrastructure projects and lack of frontline social services were a result of this budget stalemate and tug-of-war. They might be just birth pangs for we are entering into a fresh start of political leadership from the rotten dustbin of political repetitions. The people, who are fed up for decades, might express their disgust through the ballots as it was in 2019.
The sure thing is, this issue will be dragged from the respective halls of the provincial capital compound to political campaign rallies staged in every nook and corner of Occidental Mindoro. As the saying goes,”Kakaladkarin ito sa mga entablado hanggang iukit sa mga balota loob ng mga presinto.” The election will be the final arbiter of this madness and selfishness. This cannot be settled by way of any radio interviews or social media posts from both camps, even a blog entry such as this. This gridlock is a deliberate act that disregards the least, the lost, and the last among the masses who expect a fresh brand of local governance from persisting visionary leaders.
Popcorn that would last until May, please?
The lesson re-learned: There is also stalemate not only in chess, the competition of intellect, and the all-physical sport called tug-of-war but especially in the deadly, deceptive game called wanton politicking.
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(Photo:
Jasper Francisco)
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