By Nora Soriño
Iligan City Bureau Chief,
and Nene Lachica
Correspondent .
Iligan City — A lawyer here has questioned yesterday the seemingly “excessive” budget of the Sangguniang Panlungsod especially on an item under “Committee Services.”
The total budget for 2018 of the Sangguniang Panlungsod is P70 million, and out of this, P30 million went to “Committee Services,” lawyer Dino Quijano pointed out.
He added that he has documents which show that in one hearing, the budget for meals was P42,000. There were 95 attendees in the hearing and the menu, according to his documents, consisted of “beef randang, fish fillet in sweet and sour sauce, (softdrink), Hawaiian burger, plain rice, and others.
In his computation, each attendee of the hearing was alloted P451 each.
“Was there really a public hearing,” Quijano rhetorically asked, “and were there plenty of ‘bring house’ as the P451 was more than enough for each person.”
In 2017, the budget for “Committee Services” was only P14 million.
“Why had it leaped to P30 million this year,” Quijano asked.
He said the P70-million budget did not include the salaries of the councilors and their respective personnel.
The P42,000 budget for meals per committee hearing, according to Quijano’s documents, have been disbursed twice this year, with the same details.
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