Mayor leads budget forum for villages

MAYOR Celso Lobregat together with the local finance committee headed the conduct of budget forum for the different villages in line with Zamboanga City’s preparation for the 2013 executive budget.

The budget forum started Monday covering the Curuan-Vitali cluster consisting of 23 villages in the city’s east coast.

On Tuesday, the forum will cover the villages under the Culianan cluster and will be held at the covered court of Culianan village, also in this city’s east coast.

The west coast villages and those villages located within the city proper will have their forum on Wednesday.

The participants to the forum include the village chairmen, secretaries, treasurers and the chairmen of the village committee on appropriation.

Together with Lobregat are Councilor Benjamin Guinona III, who chairs the City Council’s committee on appropriations; City Budget Officer Virginia Gara; City Treasurer Soledad Li; City Accountant Sylvia Binarao; City Planning and Development Officer Engr. Rodrigo Sicat and City Auditor Lourdes Lirio.

The City Government commenced marathon hearings for the 2013 Executive Budget a month ago.

Lobregat convened on August 1 the City Development Council (CDC) whose members unanimously endorsed the 2013 supplemental Local Development Investment Plan (LDIP) at P1.13 billion and the 2013 Annual Investment Plan (AIP) amounting to P4.22 billion.

LDIP is a wish list of projects while the AIP is the so-called priority list of projects culled out from the LDIP.

Lobregat also presided over the hearings at the City Hall conference room together with the his Finance Committee concentrating on the requirements for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) of the different national high schools, city departments, Regional Trial Court and Municipal Trial Court branches, Shari’ah District Court, Office of the City Prosecutor and other agencies that receive assistance and support from the City Government.

Public schools, though they are under the Department of Education (DepEd), get assistance from the City Government in the form of school buildings and other education-related projects, including allowances for public school teachers.

Separate budget hearings were also conducted for the different departments under the City Government.

Due to sound fiscal management, the City Government was able to reduce the personal services (PS) component of the budget and the maintenance operation and other expenses (MOOE) and increased the capital outlay and equipment (CO&E).

After fixing the budget in his first term, Lobregat has been able to maintain a well-balanced mix of PS, MOOE and CO&E starting in his second to third terms resulting in the massive implementation of infrastructure projects and the acceleration of delivery of basic social services.

In terms of expense classification, social services and economic services get the bulk of the budget allocation followed by general public services. (Bong Garcia)