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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Tension-filled the session hall in Dumanjug, a town 74.3 km southwest of Cebu City, yesterday when about 200 supporters of Mayor Cesar "Sarsi" Baricuatro, went inside the session hall and mocked councilors for slashing the budget by millions of pesos.
The incident forced the Cebu Provincial Police Office to send a team of Special Reaction Unit members to augment town policemen to prevent any untoward incident.
Ten councilors, seven of whom belong to the opposition, tried to override the mayor's veto on the slashed budget.
The jeering of the crowd inside the hall forced the councilors to end the session without acting on the town's budget.
Nelson Garcia, a supporter and relative of ex-officio councilor Antonio Garcia, who is also member of the opposition, said the council adjourned the session after 20 minutes.
?Because while they were on session, the mayor?s squad went inside and some of those inside booed councilors whenever they opened their mouth. To prevent the situation from worsening, they opted to end the session,? he said.
Baricuatro denied allegations that he paid the crowd P150 each to be at the legislative building.
He, however, said he met town residents on Sunday and informed them of the council's decision to cut the budget by several millions.
Baricuatro claimed that the budget was slashed by at least P2.1 million.
Baricuatro said one of those deleted was the P800,000 allotted for assistance to farmers and maintenance of the town's farm to market road.
The P300,000 allocation for garbage collection and disposal was cut to P30,000.
?That is our year-round budget. Part of the money will be used to pay the salaries of the garbage collectors, gasoline of the garbage trucks and payment for services in the event if we use dumptrucks to push garbage down the mountain,? Baricuatro said.
Nelson Garcia, brother of Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, said the council cut the proposed budget by at least P5 million.
Garcia said the council, which his camp dominated slashed the town's budget for 2008 of unnecessary expenses of the mayor such as his P800,000 fund intended for his intelligence fund.
The council he said slashed the P300,000 for the landfill operation because the mayor he said was apparently asking the municipal to pay for his land which is utilize as a landfill.
?That is conflict of interest,? he said.
Baricuatro however denied the claims saying that from his proposed budget not a single centavo would go to his pocket.
Baricuatro's ally, Councilor Guntrano Gica, who presided over the session after Vice Mayor Abdon Jumao-as failed to attend, said because of the controversy the town is now operating without a budget
He said the town could not also renew the contracts of around 500 casual and job order employees.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, who learned of the Dumanjug row, again called the leaders to set aside their political differences for the good of their constituents. /Chief of Reporters Suzzane S. Alueta and Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan
