PRESENTLY, there are two annual budgets for 2008 at the Iloilo Provincial Capitol – that of the Governor and the other, that of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP). And each is insisting that his or their budget should be the one in operation.

We understand that there is already a case in court asking it to decide as to which should prevail – the reenacted 2007 budget, with the Governor refusing to acknowledge the SP revised executive budget, or the SP revised budget, which the Governor vetoed but subsequently overridden by the SP.

Premised on the expectations that the annual budget should reflect the people’s true welfare and interests, it does not follow that just because the annual budget is an executive budget it is already the correct budget. It does not also follow that because the SP has overridden the veto of the Governor, the SP revised budget is the correct budget.

Let us be frank about it. The governor can fashion the budget to meet his political interests and that of his group, thus, the budget may not really reflect true public welfare, and therefore may be corrected by the legislature.

On the other hand, no one can discount the possibility that in refashioning the executive budget, the legislators in majority would also inject their political interests, who incidentally, in the present SP, belong to the opposition.

In fact, anyone who has read their budgets would agree with me, in his or her honest mind, that so much in either’s budget have in them the political interests of the Governor and the members in absolute majority in the SP.

In other words, neither of the two budgets was composed strictly in the name of public welfare.

How then may a court settle the conflict, or even just the Dept. of Budget & Management? We do not know.

If I were the court or the DBM I would not be able to make a decision, as that would be taking sides in their political interests in the budget, which under my own vow in public service I could not in conscience do.

I would instead recommend that a budget commission be formed, where the members are equally taken from both the Governor’s Office and the SP, with a DBM official presiding during the deliberations and making the vote in case of a tie.

This commission should then work for the “correct annual budget”, that is, with only the public welfare in mind. Submitted thereafter to the legislative body for its review and enactment, its approval should have little trouble.

By the way, this kind of budgetary preparation and approval is not a strange practice in democratic countries. In the United States, in North Carolina in particular, agency (or department) budgetary requests are sent to both the governor’s budget office and an advisory budget commission.

The advisory budget commission is composed of 12 members – four gubernatorial appointees, four senators, and four representatives. It makes the recommendation for the “correct budget” to the governor, who usually go along with its recommendation.

Leave a Reply