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[av_heading heading=’MassKara organizers’ finances divide SP’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) asked MassKara Festival organizers from 2013 to 2016 to furnish it copies of audited financial statements.
But three councilors opposed having Kasadya Bacolod Development Foundation, Inc. (KBDFI), organizer from 2013 to 2015, file such statement.
Only the current organizer, Silver MassKara Festival Organization (SMFO), should disclose its finances, according to Claudio Jesus Puentevella, Sonya Verdeflor and Wilson Gamboa Jr.
Puentevella filed a resolution asking the SMFO to submit to the SP an audited financial statement, but Councilor Renecito Novero proposed that the city council should require the KBDFI of the same.
Councilor Em Ang filed a subsidiary motion in view of Novero’s suggestion.
“If we want to be transparent, we might as well be transparent all throughout without exceptions,” she said.
The KBDFI organized the annual festival during the administration of then mayor Monico Puentevella.
According to Ang, then councilors Carlos Jose Lopez and Roberto Rojas sought a financial report from the KBDFI but majority of the councilors at the time voted against it.
Councilor Caesar Distrito pointed out that the councilors who opposed requiring a financial statement from the KBDFI in the last three years were the same ones requiring the same from the SMFO.
“There was a sudden change of heart,” he said.
The SMFO was organizing the festival during the mayorship of Evelio Leonardia, before Puentevella took over in 2013.
“They want the organizer under Leonardia to submit, but not the one under Puentevella? Who are they, sacred cows,” asked Distrito. He stressed the idea was “ironic” and reeks of “double standard.”
All Councilor Puentevella — son of the former mayor — could provide as reason for his opposition was that he wanted a separate resolution for KBDFI.
Yesterday, Ang, Distrito, Novero, Cindy Rojas, Elmer Sy, and Bartolome Orola voted in favor of the resolution and the subsidiary motion, while Ann Marie Palermo abstained.
SMFO festival director Eli Francis Tajanlangit said he will furnish the SP a copy of their audited financial report if it so requests. They have been doing so in the years that they were handling the festival, he said.
Tajanlangit said they are in the middle of accounting and could probably submit the report next month.
KBDFI chairman Rhoderick Samonte, on the other hand, said he will comment only when he has read the SP resolution.
Organizers of the MassKara Festival are typically volunteers from the private sector independent of the city government. They raise money through sponsorships and donations, and may or may not file a financial statement./PN
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