Cebu City Council approves P10B budget for 2021

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council put its foot down on the city’s budget for 2021 on Wednesday, December 23, 2020, approving only P10 billion instead of the P10.8 billion proposed by Mayor Edgardo Labella.

The approved budget is P400 million lower than the 2020 annual budget, which was at P10.4 billion.

Read: Labella eyes P10B for Cebu City 2021 annual budget

According to Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, the chairperson of the committee on budget and finance, the committee was able to reduce allocations on various aspects of the proposed budget, including the travel expenses, certain infrastructure projects, training expenses, and the confidential funds of the mayor.

“We reduced the training expenses significantly and from P30 million, we reduced the mayor’s intelligence funds to P20 million. We also have allocations that remained the same as last year like the budget for garbage management. The [budget for] purchase of motor vehicles was also reduced,” said Garcia.

Read: Thorough review causes delay in approval of Cebu City’s 2021 budget

This rationalization and optimization of the budget was a product of the unified decision of the council to minimize the expenses in 2021 and focus the budget on what is immediately needed by the residents.

At least P400 million was allocated for the purchase of medicines and vaccines, which the city is preparing for the arrival of the coronavirus vaccine in the country.

The P800 million savings of the city government from the reduced annual budget will be used to pay off a portion of the remaining balance for the South Road Properties (SRP) loan incurred in 1998 for its construction.

However, Garcia said the loan payment will be taken up in a supplemental budget on January 2021, a subject to be tackled by the council on another day.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama expressed gratitude to the council members for passing the annual budget on time and for being committed to the budget deliberations for the past three weeks.

Rama said after the last regular session of the council for the year 2020, that the council was determined to rationalize and optimize the budget, resulting in the significant reduction of such.

“We are not obstructionists. We only want a need-based budget,” said Rama.

Despite the passing of the budget, Councilor Alvin Dizon has signified objections to the allocation of P120 million for a command center, which he believes is not an immediate need for the residents.

The councilor requested the executive department to make a regular report of the pandemic response expenditures under the annual 2021 budget in the interest of public transparency and accountability.

He also requested the civil society members of the Cebu City Development Council (CCDC) to actively monitor the 2021 budget execution of the Cebu city government to ensure that public funds are used properly.

/bmjo