THE Cebu City Council has created an ad hoc committee that will work with the office of Mayor Edgardo Labella, aiming to "refocus and streamline" the budget for 2021.
The committee, created through a motion of Vice Mayor Michael Rama, will also help the executive department in looking for other sources of funds for the latter's priority projects.
The City Council has been deliberating the P10.8 billion budget proposed by the mayor.
Rama previously talked about not passing the budget unless Labella will liquidate the P3.5 billion lump sum for the city's response against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last scheduled regular session of the City Council is on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. If the 2021 budget is not passed on that day, councilors may agree to hold special sessions; if the City Council would vote not to pass the budget, the City would have to make do with a reenacted budget.
Rama's speech
In his privilege speech during the regular session on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, Rama said the City Council members should help the mayor who "sits alone in the executive branch... and directly accountable to the people."
"Capable as he may be, he is nonetheless new," Rama said.
Rama and Labella are allies in the Barug party, which holds the majority of the council. Labella, a lawyer, had been a city councilor for multiple terms and vice mayor for two consecutive terms from 2013 to 2019. He was elected mayor in the 2019 elections. Labella's first three-year term will end in June 2022.
Composition
The ad hoc committee is composed of the vice mayor and his Barug partymates Councilors Phillip Zafra, Eduardo Rama Jr., Raymond Alvin Garcia, and opposition Councilors Lea Japson, Franklyn Ong, Nestor Archival and Alvin Dizon.
Rama was vague in his response if he was unsatisfied with some of the proposed expenditures by the executive department, saying the ad hoc committee will "bring enlightenment."
The vice mayor said it is the duty of the local legislators to help the mayor as they are officials who are accountable to their constituents.
Rama, in a previous interview, said the City should turn away from infrastructure projects in 2021 except for the completion of the new Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) building and projects that will solve the city's flooding problem.
The proposed expenditures for 2021, he said, should align with the approved resolution of the City Council last September that was crafted for the Covid-19 pandemic response and solving the flooding woes in the city.
He said the "budget should be focused more on pandemic, flood, food production and social concerns."
Firm stand
Rama also said he is firm in his stand not to use the P3 billion proceeds from the South Road Properties (SRP) lot sales as part of the sources of funds for 2021.
He said the City should finish paying the SRP loan first.
"That is my position and I am very emphatic on that position... ang utang dapat bayaran (debts must be paid)," he said.
Rama also said he is "not politicking," but he is "merely exercising his brother(ly) prerogatives and obligations as the party leader and keeping in line with our promise of transparency."
VoxPop Cebu tried to reach Labella for his comment, but got no reply from him. (JJL)
(Editor's note: The early version of this story misstated the year of Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella's first term will end. The mayor's term will end in June 2022, not June 2020.)