By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Batac
City—Mayor Jeffrey Jubal C. Nalupta defended
his veto of an ordinance unanimously approved by members of the Sangguniang
Panlungsod.
The ordinance calls for the
grant of P3,000 as burial/death assistance for senior citizens in the city.
Mr. Nalupta reasoned that
there was already an existing ordinance and as such it should have been amended
and not totally changed.
An older ordinance
specifically defines the qualifications of senior citizens who are entitled to
a P1,000 burial/death assistance. The main qualification is that the senior
citizen must be an indigent.
The new ordinance however
calls for the grant of P3,000 death/burial assistance regardless of economic
status.
Mr. Nalupta admitted that he
proposed the amendment but in his proposal he specified that only the amount of
assistance should be changed.
He stressed that he is in
favor the P3,000 assistance provided the original qualifications are
re-inserted.
“Para kaniyak, imbes nga ti ik-ikkan tayo iti dakkel nga attention ket dagitay benefits for the dead, why
not, look at ways and means a maikkan ti benefits
for the living,” the mayor pointed out.
Mr. Nalupta cited an example
on the benefits granted to the City’s centenarian where qualifications were set
for beneficiaries.
In a related development, the
mayor admitted that that there is too much delay in the passage of the city’s
annual budget for 2015 due to many activities in the last quarter of last year.
He then appreciated the
effort of the council to hold daily budgetary hearings to hasten the process.
The proposed annual budget
was only submitted to the office of the council presiding officer on Feb. 12,
2015.
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