The Cebu Provincial Capitol
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Cebu Provincial Government has proposed to allocate approximately P6.3 billion to fund the province’s health sector.
Based on the proposed budget plan for 2022, the Capitol will be setting aside P3.2 billion to improve and modernize the existing health facilities and equipment as well as to sustain its COVID-19 response programs.
P2.3 billion is earmarked for hospital services while P804.6 million for public health services. For this year, the Capitol spent P1.9 billion for all four provincial and 16 district hospitals.
“For the health sector, greatly distressed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we prioritized the Provincial Government’s COVID-19 response by fully equipping our provincial and district hospitals as well as other health facilities by allocating P6,299,570,253.85 from Social Services to enable the modernization of current medical facilities and the augmentation of existing medical personnel located in the different local government units,” Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia stated in the budget proposal which was already submitted to the Provincial Board for review and approval.
A copy of the proposal was also furnished to members of the media after the Provincial Development Council (PDC) approved it in its meeting last October 28, 2021.
The Provincial Government is pushing a P18 billion budget for 2022, which is P3 billion higher than this year’s budget of P15 billion.
Approximately 51 percent of the budget’s share, at P9.4 billion, will be going to Social Services. This includes the P6.3 billion for healthcare services.
Economic services comprise 32.4 percent of the proposed budget, at P5.9 billion of which P5 billion is earmarked for infrastructural projects meant to aid the province’s economic recovery.
These included improvement and concreting of the province’s road networks, construction of multi-purpose halls, daycare and health centers, and the development of bulk and level three water systems.
The remaining P2.9 billion of the P18 billion budget, on the other hand, will be intended for General Public Services.
“Our primary objective is to continue managing and operating the Province of Cebu as an enterprise where its funds will be judiciously expended for the delivery of quality government services fo the Cebuanos,” Garcia added.
/bmjo
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