Baguio officials allot P20M to buy cars

BAGUIO CITY – The city council on Monday allotted close to P20 million for the purchase of vehicles for the use of its councilors, the vice mayor and the city mayor. The amount will come from a 2006 city budget savings from their Internal Revenue Allotment worth P25.2 million. The "car-plan" ordinance, numbered 057, was passed on its third and final reading on Monday. The ordinance was sponsored by pastor-turned politician Galo Weygan after the city’s Local Finance Committee certified the 2006 IRA surplus of P25 million. Under the approved ordinance, P15 million will be used for the 'car plan' for the 14 councilors including the vice mayor, meaning a vehicle worth a little more than P1 million each. The mayor would get an allotment of P4.6 million for his vehicle. The remaining P5.6 million was allotted for barangay projects which are to be identified by the members of the city council. The ordinance was approved overwhelmingly. Only councilor Antonio Tabora Jr. voted against the ordinance while councilors Rufino Panagan and Leandro Bayan Jr. were out of the session hall during the deliberation and voting, which was presided by councilor Rocky Thomas Balisong. Asked to comment, Vice mayor Daniel Fariñas, who is now the acting mayor while mayor is on official visit to China said the city “needs more garbage trucks and sanitary landfill as priority, rather than cars". Tabora Jr. described the ordinance as "infuriating" because the allocation was done in obvious haste. He pointed out that he had asked for a deferment but the majority of the councilors prevailed during the voting. Tabora Jr. said that with the car for each of the councilor, the city's woes could multiply as it would have to shoulder payment for the driver for each of the councilor, the gas allocation for each of the vehicle and the subsequent maintenance of the vehicles. Some policemen noted that three of their prowl cars have already been junked. The city has one vehicle for each of the 10 sub-stations, one for the traffic division and two unmarked vehicles for operations while two SWAT vehicles double as prowl cars. Baguio police spokesman Senior Police Officer 3 Virgilio Hidalgo said that three police units - the Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO) unit, Child and Women Section and Operations Division - do not have vehicles.- GMANews.TV