PB OKs P462.6M investment plan

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Provincial Board yesterday approved the Annual Investment Plan of the province amounting to P462.6 million.

The AIP, which is a listing of projects identified by the Provincial Development Council, a body whose composition includes non-government and people’s organizations, reflects the priorities of the administration.

The plan will cover the economic services, which got the lion’s share of this year’s AIP at P298,295,000 and the social and environmental services totaling to P47,805,000.

Among other projects under the economic services, a total of P110 million was set aside for the payment of loans for heavy equipment, P50 million Capitol’s counterpart for farm-to-market roads under the Philippine Rural Development Program, and P86 million for the construction and rehabilitation of roads, bridges, and highways.

The Capitol under Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III’s administration is putting a priority this year on the purchase of heavy equipment and vehicles to be utilized for the construction and maintenance of provincial and barangay roads.

For the social and environmental services, on the other hand, the biggest share went to the procurement of the hospital and laboratory equipment for the province-run health facilities at P29.3 million.

Davide said that among his agenda is the upgrade of provincial hospitals to at least level one status. Apart from the social and economic services, the plan also covers subsidy to local government units and capital expenditure projects.

The Office of the Governor gets P75 million, P7 million for the vice governor’s, and P34.5 million for the Sangguniang Panlalawigan members.

The amount for the AIP was approved by the Provincial Board last December.

The AIP is 20 percent of the Capitol’s P2.3 billion Internal Revenue Allotment share for 2015.

The formulation of the AIP is mandated under Republic Act 7160 (Local Government Code of 1991), which sets that at least 20 percent of a local government unit’s IRA share should be set aside for it. (FREEMAN)