Garcia blames Hontiveros anew over budget flaws

Garcia submitted a P17.9 billion budget proposal that was trimmed down to P14.6 billion by the city council.

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It may be recalled that during the last weeks of December 2024, Garcia went on leave, placing Hontiveros in the role of acting mayor, including during the approval of the annual budget.

According to Garcia, the proper procedure should allow the city mayor to review all the items that were trimmed down in order to exercise veto or line-item veto powers.

In line with this, he stressed that reviewing the whole proposal requires “due diligence.” Personally, Garcia said it would take him two to three days to review the entire document.

Garcia then raised the possibility that the budget ordinance was printed after the council deliberated and approved it on the same day—possibly beyond office hours or even the next day, which was a Saturday, a non-working day.

It can be remembered that Hontiveros signed the approved and deliberated budget on a Saturday, defending that it was to avoid a reenacted budget.