If no compromise is reached, another contentious item in the annual budget of the provincial government may trigger a string of suits that might further strain the relations between the Governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

Enojo confirms that the Provincial Governor, Treasurer, Accountant and Budget Officer will not sign any documents that would facilitate the release of funds to finance the programs and projects of the SP Members, who transferred the appropriations amounting to P 18 million from the Office of the Governor to the SP under the Vice-Governor.

The wisdom of the SP action was to insulate the members from any influence noting that a number of their programs and projects in the past years were not disbursed or released.

Some SP members are in fact contemplating filing cases against department heads that will refuse to sign vouchers and other documents to pay for the supplies, labor, materials and other expenses under the programs and projects of the Sanggunian as embodied in the annual budget.

But Enojo asserts that a Supreme Court decision has settled that Sanggunian members being part of the legislative branch could not “cross-over and implement projects, which is the sole domain of the executive.”