Cebu City’s proposed supplemental budget still pending before council

CEBU, Philippines — The proposed P635 million Supplemental Budget 1 is reportedly still surrounded with uncertainty.

This, after it was assessed that the livelihood program item hasn't been justified during the budget deliberation, said Councilor Noel Wenceslao, chairman of the Council committee on Budget and finance.

In an interview with The Freeman yesterday, Wenceslao said the council had gone through another round of three budget hearings after the copy of the proposal was returned to the executive department to give the latter to incorporate its recommendations.

In the latest budget hearings conducted, Wenceslao said the item on the livelihood program was not thoroughly explained nor represented in the first place.

“Red flag gyud siya nako. Kay unsaon man nako paghatag og budget kung dili na i-explain og unsa ni siya nga kind of program,” said Wenceslao.

Wenceslao said each item proposed in SB 1 was asked to be explained, and the livelihood program hasn’t been justified since no one was present to explain the rationale of the program.

Because of this, Wenceslao said there is a possibility that this item will be removed from the proposal.

“Naa gyuy possibility nga di gyud na ma-take up namo, di gyud namo maapil ang livelihood,” said Wenceslao.

Despite this, Wenceslao clarified that this will have to go through with the other members of the committee to come up with a recommendation report for the council to deliberate and approve.

“It is not only me who will decide on this, the whole committee man gud,” said Wenceslao.

It was reported that to support the funding of the increased Charter Day bonus, proposed budget allocations for livelihood programs and asphalting were trimmed as SB 1 underwent another round of a legislative process.

Despite reaching the first reading level at the legislative table, the proposed P635 million SB 1 returned to square one as it must go through another set of budget hearings. This followed the council’s decision to return SB 1 to the executive department to incorporate the recommendations discussed during the budget hearing.

Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia told reporters that the revised SB 1 was returned to the council with trimmed budgets.

Garcia confirmed that he was informed of the changes in SB 1. He said, based on what he heard, the original proposal lacked P52 million to fund the increase of the Charter Day bonus from P25,000 each to P35,000.

He further explained that to make up for the missing funds, the proposed P140 million budget for asphalting was reduced to P100 million, while the livelihood program was trimmed down from P100 million to P80 million.

The third item in SB 1 is the continuation of the construction of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), with P210 million allocated.

According to Garcia, this amount will be used to complete the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors, which were initially intended to be funded by a donation drive organized by the Cebu Medical Society (CMS). -  JG (CEBU NEWS)