Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Roads, bridges, buildings for the barangays and water systems will be the priority projects of the Cebu Capitol for 2020.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the provincial government will follow the cue of the national government in prioritizing the infrastructure projects in setting the annual budget for 2020.
This Saturday, September 21, offices in the Capitol is set to present before the Committee on Budget and Appropriations their annual investment plan for next year.
“I am following the direction of the President. We have to build, build, build. We must take care of our basic infrastructure first if we wish for economic development,” Garcia said.
“We must have good roads, good bridges, level 3 water systems. We will assist the barangays in their need for covered courts as these will serve as evacuation centers in times of calamities,” she added.
Garcia earlier directed the offices to base their budget proposals for 2020 on their actual expenditures this year in order to provide “rhyme and reason in the preparation of the budget.”
This means that for new projects, the office heads will have to defend the importance of the projects before they can get the nod of the Committee on Budget on Appropriations of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP).
Read more: Gwen tells dept heads to base 2020 budget on 2019’s actual expenditure
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“As I’ve said, we will direct our resources in things which I believe will benefit more people,” Garcia said.
In August, the Provincial Board (PB) has passed a supplemental budget of 1.3 billion to augment the 2019 Annual Investment Plan of P4.6 billion.
Around P800 million of the supplemental budget is allocated for infrastructure projects.
“We already bidded out about 66 kilometers of provincial and barangay roads for concreting. Ang kaning sa SB pa lang, ang ma-covered ani nga municipalities ang cities practically 86 percent of our municipalities and cities. I-sunod nato og bid out ang water systems for Carmen, Moalboal, Pinamungajan and Pilar,” Garcia said.
(From the SB alone, 86 percent of the towns and cities of the province will already be covered with the concreting of roads. We will bid out the water system projects for the towns of Carmen, Moalboal, Pinamungajan and Pilar next.)/elb