Osmeña
FOR CEBU CITY EXECUTIVE DEPT.
The Cebu City government executive department is proposing a budget of P8.1 billion for 2019.
The amount is P1.9 billion higher than the P6.2 billion budget approved for 2018.
It is also P1-billion bigger compared to the sum of the 2018 budget and the four Supplemental Budgets (SB) amounting to P918 million, all of which totalled P7.1-billion.
Cebu City Budget Officer Marrieta Gumia said the increase in the proposed budget of Mayor Tomas Osmeña can be attributed to the special projects proposed by the mayor.
A summary of the budget proposal furnished to members of the media revealed that Osmeña plans to implement free bus rides for college students living in the city’s mountain barangays.
For this, the mayor intends to buy 40 buses to bring the students to schools in the city and then back to their hinterland villages.
The bus system project, including its services and maintenance costs, was pegged at P232 million.
Aside from providing free transportation, Gumia said the city’s executive department also plans to renovate the Cebu City Condominium, to serve as the students’ temporary shelter in the city. The cost of renovation was estimated at P10-million.
Meal allowances, amounting to P11.3-million, will also be provided to city scholars from mountain barangays, based on the proposed budget.
According to Gumia, the increasing prices of fuel products prompted the General Services Office (GSO) to ask for more funds for fuel allowance.
“(The Department of Public Service) is also planning to purchase new garbage trucks instead of renting for the whole year,” she said.
The purchase of new garbage trucks will cost P232.5 million, said Gumia.
The proposed budget also included financial assistance to senior citizens (P455.2 million), barangays in implementing their projects (P400 million), scholars (P158.3 million), firemen (P65 million), barangay tanods (P78.8 million), barangay environment officers (P17.3 million), the city’s peace and order personnel (P65-million), judiciary (P10.1 million), and policemen deployed in the mountain barangays (P2.6 million).
The bulk of the funds will come from local taxes collected by the city which amounted to P2.5-billion and Cebu City’s share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
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