16/07/2025
Editorial
The Morning After
‘There’s got to be a morning after,’ or so a popular song says.
This should likewise be a guiding line for members of the City Council of Tarlac when they failed to override the veto on the 2025 Budget by former Mayor Cristy Angeles.
Yes, Virginia, among the last official acts of Ex-Mayor Angeles was to veto the very budget she proposed and sought approval from the City Council.
Lest we forget, this budget was the subject of heated arguments and divisiveness among the members of the City Council prior to the May elections.
What the NPC Councilors who are the majority bloc then were inquiring about were double entries in the proposed budget. Minus these, they approved the budget.
On her last day in office, Ex-Mayor Angeles exercised her veto powers leaving the incoming administration in limbo.
Much like the President of the Philippines, veto powers belong to the executive. It is a constitutional right to reject a proposal made by a law- making body such as the senate. Translated on a local level this means a mayor can reject what was already approved by the City Council.
A budget however emanates from the executive as implementor of everything that the city needs to spend on. Projects proposed by the barangays are included in this executive budget.
Our government structure is such, that, while the executive spends, it is the legislative body that holds the purse, being so, any money drawn from the government coffers should be backed by an appropriation ordinance from this body.
The legislative body or city council for this matter, is also clothed with an oversight power. It is a function bestowed on them to look into how the funds were spent i.e, -- were they spent on projects and programs as defined in the budget? If so. were they spent judiciously?
Yesterday, July 15, 2025, the City Council had its first official session.
Despite the shift in the majority bloc of the council, expectations were high, that the new city council will override ex-Mayor Cristy Angeles’ veto of the 2025 budget, BUT THEY DID NOT.
This, amid calls for unity coming from both sides of the political spectrum now pervading in the City -- best expressed during the turn over ceremony of the City to the administration of Mayor Susan Yap last June 30, 2025 and during the first flag ceremony held last July 7, 2025; on the other side, Vice Mayor KT Angeles-Go, expressed the need to unite during the inaugural session of the City Council held the same week to which Mayor Yap was invited and to which she attended.
Other than political vendetta, we find no rhyme nor rea*on for the former Mayor’s veto of the very budget she proposed- especially so, that she is no longer Mayor day after she rejected it.
But, as we reel away from the pains of the past election towards a healing process, the new city council should take another look of what lies ahead in the service of their constituents, the People of Tarlac City.
So, what lies the morning after then? The song completes a vision. To the City Council of Tarlac, this is for you:
“We have a chance to find the sunshine.
Let’s keep on looking for the light.”
