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By Francis Allan L. Angelo
ILOILO Governor Niel Tupas Sr. is using “strongman tactics” to impose his will on the annual budget of the provincial government by bending the law in his favor.
This is Vice Governor Rolex Suplico’s reaction to his uncle’s first executive order this New Year directing Capitol department heads to use the reenacted 2008 annual and supplemental budgets and 20% development fund instead of the P1.180-billion 2009 annual budget approved by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan November 18, 2008.
Suplico said Tupas’ order violated the Local Government Code (LGC) and budget rules issued by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to local government units.
Citing Section 323 of the LGC, the vice governor said Tupas cannot reenact the 2008 budget because the provincial board passed the 2009 budget before January 1, 2009.
“A reenacted budget will only take effect if no new budget was passed by January 1. In our case, we were able to enact a new budget, thus the move of the governor is illegal,” Suplico said.
Even if Tupas vetoed the 2009 annual budget December 2, 2008, Suplico said the new budget must be implemented after the veto was overridden by two-thirds of the SP membership last December 19, 2008.
Suplico said the mere filing of a declaratory relief with the Regional Trial Court against the 2009 budget cannot impede the implementation of the new appropriations ordinance.
“Unless the governor secures a temporary restraining or injunction order from the court or the DBM declares the entire 2009 budget as inoperative, he has the ministerial duty to implement the new appropriations ordinance intended for this year. Governor Tupas has no power to reenact the budget while a new appropriations measure is in effect. Even if the budget is under review by the DBM, the executive must implement it until told otherwise,” he added.
Suplico also questioned the reenactment of the 20% Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) development fund because the LGC and the DBM only allows the following appropriations to be reenacted: salaries and wages of personnel, contractual and statutory obligations such as loans and essential operation expenses such as water and electricity bills.
“The Local Government Code and the DBM prohibits the reenactment of the 20% IRA development fund. Governor Tupas has arrogated upon himself the power to appropriate public funds which is the work of the provincial board,” he said.
The vice governor likened his uncle’s move to Amendment No. 6 of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos which empowered the latter to issue laws, decrees and executive orders to the detriment of Congress.
“This is a Marcosian tactic. Governor Tupas might be the only governor in the whole world who wants to exercise the power to appropriate public funds. This executive order will imperil the hazard pay of health workers, the financial aid to barangays, and development projects in the province,” Suplico said.
By Francis Allan L. Angelo
FIVE armed men posing as cops robbed a resident of San Miguel, Iloilo late Sunday evening.
Farmer Elpidio Sencil was startled when he heard somebody knocking on the front door of their shack at Brgy. St. Niño, San Miguel past 11pm the other day.
When he peeped outside, Sencil told the San Miguel police that saw five persons wearing Fatigue uniforms and bearing long firearms and pistol outside of their house.
When Sencil asked his unexpected visitors about their purpose, one of the men claimed they were police officers looking for a wanted criminal.
Sencil allowed the men inside his home thinking they were authorities but was surprised when they declared the heist.
The victim said the uniformed men threatened to kill him if he resisted. The suspects took away a Kubota motor he used for his farm equipment, six native chickens and a rechargeable flashlight. The five suspects then boarded an unidentified vehicle and fled towards Iloilo City.
Senior Insp. Dennis Pamonag, San Miguel police chief, said Sencil was uncertain whether the clothing the suspects used were similar to the green Fatigue uniforms issued to Army soldiers or the purple-and-blue uniform issued to PNP personnel.
Pamonag said the firearms carried by the suspects might be homemade shotguns fashioned as M16 Armalite rifles.
“They (suspects) might be members of an organized crime group or rebels. We have no idea about their identities yet,” Pamonag said.
Village chief raps CIDG for closing down feria
By Francis Allan L. Angelo
THE Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is under fire from a village chief in Jaro, Iloilo City for raiding their feria Saturday evening.
Punong Barangay Abelardo Salting of Benedicto, Jaro accused the CIDG of conducting an “illegal raid” on the feria at the Jaro plaza and “pocketing” some P80,000 cash confiscated from several stalls.
Salting said the feria, which featured the “six-color game”, has a permit from the City Hall, thus it cannot be considered a form of illegal game.
The barangay captain also rapped the CIDG for not coordinating with his office before conducting the raid.
“Many of our residents can attest to what the CIDG did, particularly the money they took away,” he added.
Salting registered his complaint in the blotter reports of the Jaro police right after the raid.
The village chief said he does not question the CIDG’s authority to conduct the raid but he did not like the manner by which it was conducted.
The CIDG did not record the raid in the Jaro police blotter as what is usually done after their operations, Salting said.
Col. Luisito Ruiz, CIDG-6 deputy regional chief, denied Salting’s accusation saying they only confiscated more than P3,000 from the feria.
Ruiz said they also arrested four operators of the six-color games. He insisted the games in the plaza were illegal because the operators failed to present valid permits from the local government.
By Francis Allan L. Angelo
THE executive department of the Iloilo provincial government will draw first blood in its continuing dispute with the Sangguniang Panlalawigan over the 2009 annual budget.
Governor Niel D. Tupas Sr. said he will issue today, Monday, his marching orders to the Iloilo provincial government bureaucracy: Operate under a re-enacted budget for the fiscal year 2009.
In a statement to The Daily Guardian, Tupas said he will not implement the 2009 budget approved by the opposition dominated provincial board headed by his nephew, Vice Governor Rolex Suplico.
“We strongly believe that the annual budget enacted by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan is null and void, and we will proceed as we have done last year – operate under a re-enacted budget,” Tupas said on the eve of the first working day for 2009.
The governor said he will issue an executive order today to make official this policy even as his lawyers are set to file a case for declaratory relief before the Iloilo Regional Trial Court to seek a judicial ruling on the nullity of the appropriation ordinance.
On December 22, 2008, the SP voted 10-2 to override Tupas’s veto on Appropriation Ordinance No. 2008-08 embodying the province’s 2009 annual budget.
A vetoed ordinance is deemed valid once the legislature succeeds in overriding the chief executive’s objection with a two-thirds vote, or 10 members in favor.
Only board members June Mondejar and Shalene Palmares Hidalgo voted against the override.
“Ordinarily, an ordinance becomes valid and enforceable upon a veto override,” provincial administrator Manuel “Boy” Mejorada said.
However, as this is an appropriation ordinance, the measure requires review by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), which has the power to declare it operative or inoperative, Mejorada said.
Unless the DBM says that the ordinance is valid and operative, then the provincial government can’t be compelled to enforce the appropriation measure, he said.
Tupas said he is invoking his authority as the official primarily responsible for the implementation of the annual budget in ordering that the province adopt a re-enacted budget.
“It is clear that the 2009 annual budget as approved by the Sanggunian Panlalawigan is a tool for destruction and obstruction,” Tupas said.
“Under the circumstances, I would be violating my sworn duty if I carry out this kind of annual budget,” he said.
Mejorada said the provincial government will not shrink from the prospect of operating under a re-enacted budget.
He described the appropriation ordinance as a “decimation” of the executive budget and will only serve to block the province’s efforts to bring progress to its one component city and 42 municipalities.
More than that, as pointed out by Tupas in his veto message, the ordinance does not adhere to the statutory requirements for the enactment of an appropriation ordinance.
For one thing, the ordinance does not break down the funds into the major allotment categories such as personal services, maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) and capital outlay, he said.
Secondly, the ordinance violates the prohibition against increasing any item in the budget or inserting new items except for those considered as statutory or contractual obligations of the LGU, he added.
Mejorada said the majority bloc in the Sanggunian led by Suplico “is much too arrogant to admit having made elementary blunders.”
“What happened is that the Sanggunian, with the exception of board members Mondejar and Hidalgo, threw these legal flaws aside in a brute display of tyranny of numbers,” he said.
Board Member Rodolfo Cabado was absent during the December 22, 2008 special session when the veto override was taken up.
By Francis Allan L. Angelo
WHAT drove the suspects to behead a farm worker from Lambunao, Iloilo?
The Dumangas police is eyeing love triangle as one of the major motives in the murder of Eduardo Lozarito Jr., 18, a native of Brgy. Cayan Oeste, Lambunao.
Lozarito was found dead January 1, 2009 in a rice field at Brgy. Ilaya First, Dumangas where he worked as a rice reaper. His severed head was found 1 meter from his body which bore hack wounds.
Senior Supt. Ricardo dela Paz, Iloilo provincial police director, said two persons who were last seen with Lozarito have been invited to the Dumangas police station for investigation. The two were identified as John Sandoval in whose place Lozarito stayed while working in Dumangas, and Ernesto Jallorina, according to the Dumangas PNP. Several persons were also invited to shed light on the incident.
Dela Paz said it is possible that Lozarito’s rival to his female textmate may be responsible for his grisly death.
Initial police investigation said Lozarito went to the house of his textmate on New Year’s Eve.
But Dela Paz said they have yet to identify Lozarito’s textmate.
On January 1, the victim received a call in his cellphone from an indentified person. He then went out of Sandoval’s house and never returned.
Dela Paz said the suspect might be a native of Dumangas who harbored hatred against Lozarito.
By Francis Allan L. Angelo
FIRECRACKER injuries during the New Year Eve celebration in 2008 went down by almost 50 percent, according to the Police Regional Office (PRO-6).
PRO-6 director Isagani Cuevas said the PNP recorded only 42 cases of firecracker injuries in Western Visayas, 47% lower compared to 79 cases in 2007.
Cuevas attributed the low firecracker injuries to heavy rains December 31, the economic crisis and the government’s “Iwas Paputok Program” which seeks to discourage the public from using firecrackers during New Year’s Eve.
But the Department of Health-6 has yet to come up with its own record of firecracker injuries culled by the Western Visayas Medical Center in Iloilo City and Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.
Senior Supt. Ricardo dela Paz, Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO) director, said it is also possible that some minor New Year-related injuries were not reported or referred to hospitals.
If firecracker injuries decreased, stray bullet incidents in Iloilo City rose to 19 cases based on latest data from the Iloilo City Police Office despite warnings by the police and the DOH.
Cuevas said they are digging deeper into to the stray bullet cases although it would be hard to trace the owner of the bullets.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas raised concern over the stray bullet incidents even as he urged residents to tip the police of persons who fired their guns on New Year’s Eve.
Treñas said cash reward await those who can finger irresponsible gun owners.
By Francis Allan L. Angelo
WHOEVER threw a firecracker at a commercial establishment in Molo, Iloilo City Saturday may have yet to finish his New Year celebration or was just trying to scare the owner.
The Molo police are digging deeper into the alleged bombing of Double P&C Marketing, which sells hardware items, at Brgy. Calumpang, Molo past 1am Saturday.
Connie Muyani, owner of the said establishment, said they heard a hard object fall on their roof followed by an explosion.
When they checked the roof, they found a hole on the GI sheet and the ceiling. No one was injured in the blast.
Muyani said they have no idea as to the person responsible for the incident.
Initial reports said an improvised explosive device was lobbed at the establishment but the Iloilo City Explosives and Ordnance Division said the suspects used a kamara or ordinary firecracker.
By Francis Allan L. Angelo
ILOILO City recorded the highest number of stray bullet incidents when Ilonggos bade farewell to 2008 and welcomed 2009, the Year of the Ox.
Records from the Police Regional Office (PRO-6) and Iloilo City Police Office as of January 2, 2009 showed a total of 17 stray bullet cases with 5 injuries. This is higher than 6 stray bullet incidents recorded when Ilonggos welcomed year 2008.
Molo district recorded the most number of stray bullet cases with 10.
The Jaro police rushed to the home of businessman Benny “Vulcan” Espinosa at Villa Las Palmas after receiving reports that gunfire was heard from within the Espinosa residence.
But Espinosa denied the allegations and even invited the police and the media to go inside their home to check if they have firearms.
Supt. Eugenio Espejo, Iloilo City police director, said gun owners may have opted to fire their firearms as heavy rains might have discouraged them from using traditional firecrackers on New Year’s eve celebration.
Espejo said some gun owners did not heed their call against indiscriminate firing.
As regards firecracker incidents, data from the PRO-6 as of January 1 showed a total of 42 firecracker-related accidents in Region 6. The figure is lower than 62 firecracker injuries in 2008.
Bacolod City recorded the most number of firecracker injuries with 17, Iloilo province 10, and Negros Occidental 6.
PRO-6 authorities attributed the small numbers to the rain on New Year’s Eve.
But the Department of Health (DOH-6) has yet to release its own data on firecracker incidents referred to major hospitals in the region.
Meanwhile, DOH national figures showed a 25% decrease in firecracker injuries from 436 cases in 2007 to 346 cases from since December 22, 2008 to present.
The DOH central office also reported a total of nine stray bullet injuries, but the PNP said a higher number of 37 cases were reported to police stations since December 17.
VIOLENCE
Violent incidents marred the New Year in Iloilo province.
The worst incident happened in Dumangas town with the beheading of 20-year-old Edward Rosarito.
Lozarito’s headless body was found in a ricefield at Sitio Buhang, Brgyl. Ilaya 2nd in Dumangas Friday morning. The victim’s head was found 1 meter from his body, the Dumangas police said.
Lozarito also suffered wounds in his shoulders and forehead.
The victim was a native of Lambunao, Iloilo but worked in Brgy. Ilaya 2nd. He temporarily stayed in the house of a certain John Sandoval before he was found dead.
According to police investigation, Lozarito received a call in his cellphone Thursday evening then went out of Sandoval’s house.
Sandoval said the victim went to Brgy. Bacay, Dumangas on New Year’s Eve to visit his textmate.
The Dumangas police surmised old grudges were the motive for the incident because of the victim’s severe wounds.
In another incident, Joefrey Calimpay of Brgy. Bayag, Leon was stabbed to death by his own grandfather, Jose Wilson Calimpay, in the plaza of the said village Thursday.
An old grudge between the two is believed to be the motive for the incident.
In Cabatuan, Iloilo, Benedicto Pien and Ronald Amor were shot to death during the fiesta of Brgy. Tacdangan on New Year’s Eve.
Two persons also died in separate incidents in San Enrique, Iloilo also on New Year’s Eve.
Noel Aguilar, 47, of Brgy. Abaca in the said town was pummeled to death during a rumble.
Dennis Debaja of Brgy. Cumpo was killed in a melee between his brothers Rene Debaja and Remar Debaja and cousin-in-law Ramil Daras.
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