Vice Mayor Antoni lambasts secretariat committee head of CDC for presiding meeting on 2013 AIP

TACLOBAN CITY – Vice Mayor Arvin Antoni lambasted why the head of the secretariat committee of the City Development Council (CDC), City Planning and Development Officer Roland Hidalgo, presided the CDC meeting that was conducted last Wednesday at the Balyuan Convention Center, which aims to approve the city’s Annual Investment Plan (AIP) for 2013.

Vice Mayor Antoni, said during their weekly press briefing, said that the presiding officer of the conduct of CDC meeting must be Mayor Alfred Romualdez or his representative and not the head of the secretariat committee like CPDO Hidalgo.

Antoni discussed that CDC is basically composed of 175 members chaired by the city mayor. These 175 members must include the 138 barangay chairmen of the city, one Sangguniang Panlungsod member who chairs the committee on finance and appropriation, the representative of the first district of Leyte, and 35 non-government organizations (NGOs) representative who embodied all the duly accredited NGOs operating within the veracity of the city.

According to him, it is being mandated under the Local Government Code of 1991, to conduct at least twice CDC meeting every year to discuss and set direction for planned socio-economic progress and development good for the city.

“But the city does not follow this mandate. The administration only convenes CDC meeting once a year, and sad to say that when the CDC meeting is conducted all the things discussed are just done for compliance purposes. Everything that was included on the approved AIP is subject for change,” Antoni said.

He added that the AIP approved by the CDC members could be modified by five official members of the executive committee that embodied by the city mayor as the chairman with members including Association of Barangay Chairmen (ABC) president, representative of the first district of Leyte, SP council member who chaired the committee of finance and appropriation, and a representative of the NGO.

Moreover, the vice mayor said that this year is the first time in this city where barangay chairmen deliberated seriously on the approval of the AIP.

“This is the first time that the AIP has been voted for its approval when the 54 chairmen questioned on the proper procedures that would be followed on approving this matter,” he said.

Express noted that a motion on the deferment of the approval of the 2013 AIP was raised by one barangay chairman when he saw that the AIP document provided by the City Planning and Development Officer has two copies only.
(REY GERILLA GRADO)

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Posted by lsde on Sep 17 2012. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.