ZAMBALES VICE GOV. LACBAIN GETS ANOTHER ZERO BUDGET

Iba, Zambales. The annual budget for 2006 of Zambales vice governor Ramon G. Lacbain II was down to zero for the remaining 8 months of the year after governor Vicente Magsaysay and the members of the Provincial Board approved a series of appropriation ordinances transferring funds from the vice governor’s office to the governor’s office.

The provincial board and governor Magsaysay in an executive session at the governor’s office last May 8, 2006 after the regular session was already adjourned on that day and while vice governor Lacbain was absent adopted resolution number 2006-117 enacting ordinance number 2006-40 authorizing the transfer funds in the budget of the vice governor’s office in the amount of P855,364.75 to the governor’s office.

This amount is the remaining budget in the vice governor’s office after governor Maysaysay and the provincial also adopted resolution number 2006-41 enacting ordinance number 2006-10 authorizing the transfer of P1,067,500.00 from the vice governor’s office to the governor’s office last February 13, 2006 and another resolution number 2006-59 enacting ordinance number 2006-14 authorizing the transfer of P750,000.00 from the vice governor’s office to the governor’s office last March 13, 2006.

The annual budget for 2006 of vice governor Lacbain before the series of transfers is P3,505,000.00 which is only 1.7% of the annual budget of governor Magsaysay which is P201,032,365.00 for maintenance and other operating expenses including non-office expenses. But with the transfer of funds from the provincial board office and the vice governor’s office the budget of governor Magsaysay was even increased by P10,791.864.75.

The total budget of the provincial government of Zambales for 2006 is P459,301,327.36. The governor’s office has the biggest budget among all offices while the vice governor’s office now has the smallest with zero budget.

It will be recalled that in September of 2004 governor Magsaysay froze all the vouchers of the vice governor’s office which left the office with forced savings of P1,300,000.00 by the end of 2004. Governor Magsaysay also asked an authority from the provincial board to transfer less than P2,000,000.00 fund of the provincial board to his office.

The conflict between governor Magsaysay and vice governor Lacbain started when vice governor Lacbain sponsored a resolution duly adopted by the provincial board urging President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to appoint a qualified Zambaleno as replacement for then outgoing SBMA Chairman Felicito Payumo.

Governor Magsaysay became terribly mad at vice governor Lacbain upon knowing this resolution for fear that his political opponents former Zambales governor Amor Deloso, former governor-candidate Philip Camara or former congressman-candidate Edwin Mendaros might get the appointment.

Another resolution was also sponsored by vice governor Lacbain that was adopted by the majority of the provincial board suspending the implementation of the reorganization of the provincial government pending the submission of a detailed management study by the governor Magsaysay.

Vice governor Lacbain strongly opposed the termination of 200 regular employees of the provincial government without any assurance of payment of their termination as required by the Civil Service Commission.

As a consequence of these incidents, governor Magsaysay started to harass vice governor Lacbain by recalling the official service vehicle of the vice governor, by terminating all casual employees in the vice governor’s office, by freezing all the vouchers for reimbursements and expenses of the vice governor and by threatening to kill the vice governor which was reported in September 21, 2004 to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police.

The annual budget for 2005 of the provincial government of Zambales was again used by governor Magsaysay to harass vice governor Lacbain by not allocating any single centavo in the vice governor’s office. This is the first time that vice governor Lacbain was given a zero budget.

Instead of the vice governor preparing and submitting the budget for the provincial board and the vice governor’s office, governor Magsaysay issued executive order number 8 on September 17, 2004 granting authority to the board secretary to prepare and submit the budget of the provincial board only which left the ice governor with zero budget and bypassing his authority as vice governor and regular presiding officer of the provincial board.

All the members of the provincial board who are getting P20,000.00 each from the indigency fund of the governor and another P30,000.00 from the committee hearing fund of the governor are supporting governor Magsaysay for all his actions against vice governor Lacbain.

The members of the provincial board even agreed to the transfer of P8,000,000.00 funds from the budget of the provincial board office to the governor’s office. All the vouchers and checks of provincial board members are now being signed by governor Magsaysay instead of the vice governor as regular presiding officer.