Vice Mayor Nilo Tam of Tanjay City, Negros Oriental, said yesterday he is breaking ties with Mayor Lawrence Teves in order to correct the system being used by the executive department.

Tam said major appropriations such as the budget are approved hastily in his absence. He claimed that the approval of close to P200-million as budget was “anomalous and below the belt,” as it was passed without being calendared.

He also said it was not correct to approve an P80-million loan from a bank without going through proper deliberations, including a public hearing since taxpayers’ money is involved. 

Worse, he further claimed, it was approved in the “other matters” portion by majority of the councilors who are politically aligned with the mayor.

He said there is no more division between the legislative and the executive departments, because the mayor has to approve their resolution with a Sanggunian official letterhead, while the presiding officer is merely attesting it. 

Tam said he is not against development in opposing the P80 million loan, but added that it needs a thorough deliberation and scrutiny, even a public hearing.

The amount is intended for the construction of a P46-million city hall annex, P30 million for the sea wall, and P4 million for the transfer of the city jail.

Tam said he wanted to explore other possibilities like the build-operate-transfer scheme to fast-track the construction of a seawall, without going through a huge loan which will prejudice other social services of the city.

He also criticized the conduct of committee hearings at the office of the mayor, without sending formal investigations to members of the committee concerned.

“If all they want is garbage in, garbage out, I’m sorry but I don’t want to be with that group,” Tam said.

He claims that he envisions Tanjay as a model in self-sufficiency in terms of food production.

Teves’ camp has confirmed the split-up but his city administrator Erkki Lozarita refused to elaborate.*JG

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