14 items in city budget to get bigger allocation

CEBU, Philippines – Some 14 items proposed under the Supplemental Budget 5 for the General Fund will get a bigger appropriation after the Cebu City Council chose to realign instead the P96 million it slashed from some items in the original proposal.

Supplemental Budget No. 5 for the General Fund and Supplemental Budget No. 4 for Special will therefore remain at P1.3 billion.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, chairman of the Committee on Budget and Finance said that the budget for these 14 items were increased because the council believes that it needs more funding while those reduced were not immediate concerns of the city and may be included in the annual budget or the coming SBs.

Mayor Michael Rama said that he has no problem with the adjustments made by the council.

"The slashing is reasonable. It can wait so it's not an issue," Rama said, referring to the reduced items.

Of the P96 million realigned, P1 million will go to the Cebu City Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Team on top of the P300,000 originally proposed, P500,000 to the rehabilitation of the Plaza Hamabar in addition to the P1 million original proposal, P10 million for the purchase of mobilization equipments in addition to the P10 million proposal and P10 million for the Office of the City Civil Registrar for the digitization of the civil registry records on top of the proposed P5 million.

The Seawall project from Mambaling to Inayawan with original appropriation of P15 million will get an additional P15 million.

The council also wants the city to purchase more heavy equipment that may be used during emergencies and implementation of infrastructure projects so they are adding P11.5 million in addition to P50 million. (FREEMAN)