EDITORIAL - Reason, not politics, must determine budget

The proposed P19 billion budget of Cebu City has already been submitted to the city council. Admittedly, it is a huge budget and the executive department could have adjusted it upward mindful of the fact that the city council, which is dominated by the political enemies of the mayor, has racked up a reputation of slashing all proposed budgets by about half.

As with Congress, the city legislature exercises power over the purse of the city. It is its sworn duty to provide for the financial needs of the city in a manner that is judicious and to the best interests of the city and its people. It must see to it that whatever money it allows for spending must not only be properly sourced but properly expended as well.

That said, the city council cannot escape suspicions that it is using and has used its vast fisacal powers to curtail the ability of the administration to spend in a manner that will allow it to claim credit for the spending. The bare-bones budgets that it has approved consistently so far proves such suspicions to be valid, if not exactly correct.

There is a name for that -- politicking. If the members of the city council, particularly those who are the political enemies of the mayor, wish to pick a fight with the mayor, it should take the fight to where it will not affect the delivery of basic services to the people. The people own the money that is being made the subject of contention between the warring political entities.

These political entities ought to be ashamed of themselves for failing to see beyond their own petty political biases. Nobody is asking the city council to approve every centavo that the executive asks in the proposed budget. It would be remiss in its job of scrutinizing every item therein. And it would certainly look suspicious if it does.

But the people, regardless of their own political inclinations, do not expect the budget to be slashed to meaninglessness either. After all, it is their own money that they expect to be given back to them in the form of services. The more that they can get back in this manner, the more equitable it is for them. And the more they will be grateful to those who made it possible to happen.

The city council, in slashing ridiculously unreasonable amounts from the proposed budget, cannot use the lame excuse that it is only trying to do what is in the best interest of the people. Again, to the people who really own the money, the more they can get back in services, the happier they will be. The people are not stupid. They can see every ruse that comes into play. They know their officials well. After all, it is they who placed them in office on borrowed time.