Tañada backs E Samar
guv’s decision to defy injunction order
|
Cong.
Erin Tañada III (center) addressed members of the local media in
a press conference on April 24, 2012 in Borongan City. Tañada
said he believed Gov. Conrado B. Nicart’s decision to defy the
injunction order from the court regarding the province’s 2012
annual budget was for the greater good. The order from Judge
Elvie P. Lim has caused a paralysis in the operation of the LGU
until Nicart announced he would rather “be cited for contempt”
than see his employees not receiving their pay.
(Photo by Reinier M. Ampong) |
By MEDORA NB QUIRANTE
May
3, 2012
BORONGAN CITY –
Eastern Samar Governor Conrado B. Nicart Jr found an ally in Quezon
Province’s 4th District Representative Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III.
“Governor Nicart’s
decision, I believe, was for the good of the people of Eastern Samar,”
Tañada told members of the local media in a press conference on April
24.
Nicart had earlier
announced that he was defying the injunction order from Judge Elvie
Lim that prohibited him from using funds appropriated under the 2012
annual budget.
The order came about
after BMs Aldwin Aclao, Atty. Byron Suyot, Jojie Montallana, Atty.
Enerio Sabulao, Jenny Baldono and Betty Reyes filed a petition for
prohibition early February alleging the province’s 2012 budget failed
to get the required number of votes for its passage.
“The budget ordinance
needs a vote of 50% of the total board members plus one which
translates to eight votes. They only got seven votes,” Atty. Enerio
Sabulao, one of the six board member petitioners said in a separate
press conference.
But the court battle
reached the halls of the Capitol during the last few days of March as
all of LGU’s financial transactions including the payment of
employees’ salaries, wages and other benefits were ordered stopped.
“What we have done is
for the good of Eastern Samar in general. We have to uphold the law
and the law tells us that we need eight votes to pass the budget
ordinance,” Sabulao told the employees in a dialogue.
Sabulao told the
employees further that the governor could have resorted to re-enacting
the budget to make sure there would be no paralysis in the LGU’s
operations.
But provincial legal
officer Atty. Christopher Coles said the governor would not use a
reenacted budget because the local government code stipulates that the
LGU could only use a reenacted budget if “it fails to pass a budget
ordinance.”
“I couldn’t even look
my employees straight in the eyes because I know how not getting their
pay on time affected them and their families,” Nicart said when he
ordered the provincial accountant, provincial treasurer and budget
officer to disburse funds on April 3.
According to Tañada,
he believed Nicart had “only the best interest of his constituents in
mind.”
“In the same way
Justice Department Leila de Lima defied the TRO from the Supreme
Court, Gov. Nicart thought of the greater good when he decided to defy
the injunction order,” Tañada said.
