ON ‘INOPERATIVE BUDGET’ : Kalibo seeks TRO vs Aklan SP

Kalibo mayor William Lachica has filed an urgent petition before the Regional Trial Court to nullify an Aklan SP resolution regarding the 'inoperative 2015 annual budget' of Kalibo / PHOTO BOY RYAN ZABAL

BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

The local government of Kalibo has filed a petition for a temporary restraining order in the Regional Trial Court after the Aklan Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) declared the entire 2015 annual budget of the capital town of Kalibo ‘inoperative’.

In his petition on Wednesday, Kalibo mayor William Lachica sought to nullify the Aklan SP Resolution No. 100 series of 2015,  saying the Aklan SP committed ‘grave abuse of authority’ amounting to lack of excess of jurisdiction when it disregarded the DILG Regional Opinion No. 8 series of 2015.

He also asked the court to issue an ex-parte temporary restraining against the Aklan SP from executing the resolution. 

The mayor said the “disapproval (of the annual budgets) will hamper the operations and services of the capital town of Aklan.”

Lachica said, “the continuous inoperation of the 2015 appropriation ordinances is an extreme urgency matter causing tremendous delay in the implementation of the projects and programs in Kalibo.”

With the reenacted budget, Kalibo will disburse only for salaries and wages of existing positions and essential operating expenses specified in the 2014 annual and supplemental budgets.

Last December 11, 2014, the annual budget of P52.293 million for General Fund-Municipal Economic Enterprises Development under Appropriation Ordinance No. 2014-20 and for the P190.500 million budget for General Fund-Proper were approved by the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) of Kalibo by its five members during the 43^rd  regular session.

However, four SB members, who were on official travel during the passage of the appropriation ordinances, wrote a letter on January 26, 2015 to Aklan SP recommending for disapproval of the ordinances for “being ultra vires, for being a falsified public document, and being not valid as it was not approved by a required majority.”

Sangguniang Panlalawigan is mandated to review the appropriation ordinances of municipalities pursuant to Section 327 of Republic Act No. 7160 otherwise known as Local Government Code of 1991. 

On March 6, SB member Rodillo Policarpio, chairman of the committee on budget, appropriation and finance, sent its position paper to Aklan SP to reconsider Resolution No. 2 series of 2015 dated February 16, 2015 issued by the Provincial Local Finance Committee (PLFC) which recommended declaring the 2015 local budgets ‘inoperative’.

Policarpio said the required votes to pass an appropriation ordinance should be in accordance to Article 107 (g) of Republic Act No. 7160. 

Interior and Local government regional director Atty. Anthony Nuyda in his DILG Opinion No. 8 Series of 2015 addressed to Kalibo mayor William Lachica last March 24, 2015 stressed that enactment of an appropriation ordinances “only needs a simple majority, and therefore, the Sangguniang Bayan had validly passed the ordinances”. 

Section 55 of the Local Government Code also specifies that the appropriation ordinance is a legislative instrument authorizing the annual budget or a financial plan embodying the estimates of income and expenditures for a fiscal year of a local government unit, and not a payment of a liability which the latter requires a majority vote of all Sangguniang Bayan members. 

On two occasions, Kalibo Vice Mayor Madeline Ang-Regalado also sought for reconsideration on PLFC recommendation on March 24 and March 31, but, the Aklan SP has yet to reply to her letters. 

On March 25, Aklan SP issued Resolution No. 100 series of 2015 which declared the appropriation ordinances inoperative in its entirety. 

The resolution stated that “the PLFC was guided by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Local Circular No. 2008-90 which prescribed that a proposed appropriation ordinance should require the affirmative vote of a majority of all the Sangguniang members.”

REENACTED BUDGET?

Meanwhile, acting Kalibo treasurer Rey Villaruel said 285 job personnel will be affected by the ‘reenacted budget’ including new positions under Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

“New programs and projects, pati health services for 2015 will be affected also,” he added.

This year, development programs and activities amounting to P23.810 million will be hampered by the disapproval by Aklan SP of Kalibo’s annual budgets.