“Realistic” figure, according to mayor Garcia: P17B budget pushed

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government is proposing a reduced annual budget for the 2025 fiscal year, from this year’s P25 billion to P17 billion, which Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia describes as a more “realistic” figure.

Garcia announced yesterday that he has already signed the P17,975,362,953 budget proposal for 2025.

This proposal will be transmitted to the Cebu City Council for discussion and deliberation during the regular session this Wednesday, October 23, 2024.

Of the proposed P17 billion budget, Garcia stated that the largest portion—P2.4 billion—would be allocated to Personal Services. This includes mandated salary increases and bonuses for Cebu City Government employees.

Aside from this, the Senior Citizen Financial assistance also has a notable sum of P1.1 billion, which also translates to 20 percent of the overall budget proposal.

Further, the city also appropriated P240 million for the paving and repairing of the streets around the city; P400 million in financial assistance to barangays; P120 million in financial subsidy for the Sangguniang Kabataan; P400 million for the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program (CHAMP).

The city also proposed P550 million for Garbage Collection and Disposal; P331 million to fund the scholarship program; at least P560 million for miscellaneous for free education; while the comprehensive Climate Adaptation and Mitigation projects will have an appropriation of P200 million.

Socialized housing and lot acquisition is also appropriated with P450 million. Further, as the city plans to establish a Cebu City Web Geographic Information System (GIS), this has a proposed budget of P200 million, while the Phase 3 of the Digital Traffic System will have an allocation of P250 million.

The city also plans to establish Digital Highways in City Hall with a budget proposal of P200 million and cyber security with a P30 million proposal. The budget proposal further includes the construction and renovation of the Archive Building with P50 million and the construction of the new Legislative Building with a proposal of P100 million.

Under the Special Accounts, the budget breakdown is: P605 million for Personal Services; P107 millions for Drugs and Medicines; P5 millions for Maintenance of Sanitation and Waste Management Program; P446 million for the Current Expenditures under Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses; P688 million for Local Development Fund and P28 million for Various Capital Outlays.

Further, according to Garcia, among those he prioritized is for projects or programs that had the budget appropriation approved for the 2024 annual budget.

He said the budget proposal intended for health projects no longer includes the construction of Cebu City Medical Center as it was already included in the budget of the prior years. The other portions of the edifice namely the 8th to 11th floors will be also funded through donations from being coursed through the Cebu Medical Society.

He added the inclusion of the 2025 budget will be now intended for the medical equipment once the hospital is finished as this is among those prioritized. Garcia also said that they will be prioritizing the construction and implementation of the Transitory Housing with the budget appropriation of P600 million that was charged with the previous annual budget.

Drop from the previous annual budget

In 2023, the executive branch of the Cebu City Government originally proposed a P100 billion budget for 2024. However, this was scrutinized by the legislative body noting that the amount doubled from the previous year's approved budget of P50 billion.

The City Council then trimmed down the budget proposal and eventually approved a P25 billion budget for 2024 which then didn’t sit well with now dismissed and disqualified Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

Garcia, on the other hand, expressed that he is optimistic that he will get the council’s backing over the proposed budget saying that it is a “realistic one”.

The projected income he added is also the same amount as the proposed budget.

“Karon is P17.5 nalang (billion). This was very consistent with I what I was saying na I want a realistic budget…og unsa ray atong ma kolekta, mao rasad atong igasto,” said Garcia.

He pointed out that having a budget proposal that is way higher than the projected income can lead to an “unrealistic budget”.

Garcia added that he also wants to “manage the expectations” of the people over the large budget appropriation with no visible “improvements of infrastructures and services” due to lesser city income.

When asked how can the city be assured that these plans will be sustained and managed onwards, Garcia said that just for the plans on infrastructures, a Program and Works and Estimates (POWE) was prepared even before it was included in the budget proposal.

“Kay para instead of next year pa nato mahibaw-an nga daghang problema ilang mga project, karon pa lang, wa na nato gi include,” said Garcia.

Garcia also manifested to stop previous practices wherein budgets were included in the proposal without “due diligence”. He cited as an example a road opening budget proposal that was already listed, but then it wasn’t considered that some portions were privately-owned. These kinds of projects, he added, will be left unimplemented.

“Ang katong mga naa sa budget karon nga mga infrastructure projects have already been vetted…have already been pre-verified, nga doable ni nga project nga attainable nga project,” said Garcia. — (FREEMAN)