THE Bacolod City Council approved on its third and final reading the P2.6-billion annual budget for 2021.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said Thursday, December 10, that the 2021 budget was unanimously approved during the regular session on Wednesday afternoon.
He said the 2021 budget prioritizes the health services, social welfare services, public order and safety, education, economic and infrastructure development, among others.
"The P2.6-billion budget is down by P400 million or 13 percent below in this year's budget of P3 billion, with the decrease unfortunately due to the abated collection of taxes caused by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic," he added.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia earlier said that Bacolod City will slow down because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Bacolod was accelerating very fast during the past years. It took us 80 years to reach our first billion budget, but it only took us nine years to reach the second billion and only two years to reach the third billion. So that's how fast we were growing, but all of a sudden because of this pandemic, we have to slow down," Leonardia said.
The mayor noted that this year's P3-billion annual budget is up by a high 19 percent over 2018's budget, one of the highest increases in the city's local budget history.
Leonardia said the 2021 budget will not affect the funds for the City Health Office since the health concern is now the priority because of the pandemic.
He said the City Government will prioritize the funding for the Covid-19 vaccine once it is available.
"The city is ready to revert, re-align or augment the budget once the vaccine against the novel coronavirus is available. We want to ensure that everybody will avail of the vaccine. We have this agreement with the city's budget officer that vaccine spending will be the top priority. We are willing to revert, re-align and even augment the budget," he added.