OPPOSITION Councilor Lordan Suan on Wednesday, December 18, said he is not convinced and satisfied with the explanation of the executive department prompting him to abstain from voting for the approval of the P7.5-billion 2020 budget.
Suan said he could not understand why the budget was too high yet the actual revenue is only at P3 billion.
“I wasn’t satisfied with the reasons given during the hearings as to why the budget is too high and yet the actual income is nowhere near that figure,” Suan said.
Suan said when he raised this concern during the budget deliberations, City Budget Officer lawyer Percy Salazar could not give him answers.
“Layo ra gyud sa budget. Mao nang di ko kasabot. Nangutana mi pero ang tubag niya kay maayo ang fiscal system ni mayor. (That’s why I don’t understand. We asked [Salazar] but he replied, ‘mayor’s fiscal system is good.’) I’m sure it is. ‘Maayo ang plans ni mayor’. (Mayor’s plans are good.) I’m sure they are, but it still doesn’t explain to me why the budget is too high compared to the actual income,” he said.
“I’m not against the plans of the mayor. I want the city to succeed and bloom as much as he or anyone in the majority does. I was just looking for a logical explanation for the discrepancy. I wasn’t satisfied with the answer so I abstained,” Suan added.
However, majority floor leader Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya allayed the concerns of Suan, pointing out that there was never a time when the City Government incurred losses in implementing the budget.
“If he is familiar with the budgeting process, he would know that dili basehan kung pila ang actual, it’s all about projections next year. In fact, we already project that we are going to get P6.5 billion total revenues,” Nacaya said.
Nacaya said as the city develops, more investments will be poured which will equate to more income for Cagayan de Oro.
For him, the P7.5-billion budget is reasonable.
“The approval of the city council is a consideration of certain facts,” he added.
For next year, the executive department estimates that the total resources will reach P7.5 billion for the general fund and special account, of which tax revenue will contribute P3 billion while non-tax revenue is pegged at P1 billion.
Other local sources is at P8 million while surplus of prior years amount to P600 million. Also, external sources is estimated to reach over P1 billion from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), among others.
The bulk of the budget will go to economic services with an allocation of P3.2 billion, or 43 percent of the total budget. Of this amount, P1.8 million is intended to fund infrastructure projects; P50 million for land acquisition; P850 million for the metropolization development of the city; and P100 million for the maintenance and operation of the sanitary landfill.