The Committee on Budget and Appropriation held a budget deliberation today, November 5, for the proposed P12-billion executive budget of the Capitol for 2020. | CDND PHOTO / Rosalie Abatayo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The “war room” was packed with cups of coffee and bottles of water as members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) meticulously discussed the Capitol’s proposed P12-billion executive budget for the year 2020.
The deliberation stretched on Tuesday, November 5, as the Committee on Budget and Appropriation asked the Local Finance Committee to revise “some technical aspects in the budget.”
“The local finance committee has already taken note of the revisions that have to be made. They will prepare the necessary documents to be submitted before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan,” Soco said in an interview after the deliberation.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has already called for three budget calls since September before endorsing the executive budget to the SP last October 16.
Soco, who chairs the Committee, said they needed to carefully tackle the budget for 2020 considering that the total amount of P12,000,028,000 is the highest proposed executive budget of the Cebu Provincial Government in its 450-year history.
“There were some technical items that needed to be revised to enhance and put everything in order because this budget is first of its kind,” Soco said.
The proposed executive budget for 2020 is almost thrice the 2019 budget of P4.69 billion.
The Office of the Governor has the highest budget at P7,977,709,770.07 which saw a 346 percent increase from this year’s appropriation.
The increase in the budget of the Office of the Governor is due to the number of infrastructure projects that will be implemented starting 2020.
The Provincial Health Office, which runs 12 district and four provincial hospitals, has an appropriation of P2 billion.
The PHO has an allocation of P620,980,395.63 for its operational expenditures.
Although this is lower than the 2019 figure of P633 million, the operational allocation for the hospitals will be increased to P1.9 billion from the current amount of P669,577,774.13.
With the implementation of the Universal Healthcare (UHC), the province is expecting at least P4.2 billion to be downloaded to its coffers from the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (Philhealth).
The amount will be used for the upgrading of the provincial and district hospitals which Garcia committed to implement in 2020.
The Vice Governor’s Office had a propose appropriation of P144 million.
However, this is expected to significantly decrease as the operating expenses for each of the SP members’ offices will be taken out and will be itemized under each SP member’s budget.
This is because the PB approved on Monday, November 4, an ordinance introduced by first district Board Member Raul Bacaltos which made the creation of coterminous and primarily confidential positions under the Office of the Vice Governor to be reassigned to the respective offices of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan members.
After the revisions are submitted, Soco said they will work on their committee report on the budget which they intend to calendar in the November 18 session.
If the committee report will be approved, Soco said they will submit the revised budget for second reading during their out-of-town session in Camotes on November 25.
He added that they may also proceed with the third reading on the same day if there are no revisions in the second reading. / celr