Cebu City eyes P9B for 2022 annual budget

Cebu City Councilor Raymond Garcia says that the Cebu City Local Finance Committee are looking at near P9 billion for the annual budget. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Local Finance Committee has begin drafting the 2022 annual budget. 

Councilor Raymond Garcia, committee chairperson on budget and finance, said that they were considering near P9 billion for next year’s budget. 

However, Garcia would not yet reveal the details of the planned annual budget pending the its resubmission to the local finance committee. 

Garcia said they had to return the budget proposal because of an error in one of the entries, a small mistake that needed correction in the City Planning Office. 

“We returned it to the executive department kay nakakuha man ta og (because we got a) letter coming from the Planning Office nga there was a double entry in other words nagbutang sila (they put) for LDF (Local Development Fund) that was already put in the 2021 budget,” said the councilor. 

Garcia said the decreased budget was not brought by the decrease in income in the city as the targets had been reached constantly since last year. 

This despite the remaining sale proceeds of the 45-hectare South Road Properties (SRP) now barely P4 billion left. 

However, Garcia notes that the P9 billion does not include the capital outlay. 

“So kanang mga capital outlay wala gyud (So there ins no capital outlay). The bulk of the budget is really on personal services and MOOE (Maintaining and Other Operating Expenses),” said Garcia. 

He said the department heads deliberately reduced their budgets to focus more on the necessary expenses. 

“If I’m not mistaken also, naa baya (there is an) increase of about P900 million because of the Mandanas case so despite that, niubos jud siya, so sa ato pa (it is also lower, which means), It’s really the department heads (that) really cut down on their expenses particular ang (the) capital outlay na gitangtang gyud na (that we removed) for this year’s budget,” said Garcia. 

Acting Mayor Michael Rama said he had yet to check on the 2022 annual budget. 

He said that if there would be a need to increase or decrease the budget, he would do so accordingly.

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