MAYOR Oscar Moreno said Monday, June 15, 2020, that Cagayan de Oro's proposed budget for 2021 is expected to be lesser than the P7.5-billion budget in 2020 due to the impact brought by the pandemic.
Moreno said they will have to work on maintaining the P7.5-billion budget for 2021 or not less than P7.3 billion if a reduction is necessary.
"We cannot expect a much bigger budget for 2021 given this crisis and I think it would even be wiser to estimate a lower budget for 2021," Moreno said.
The mayor added that they already did a budget call two to three weeks ago. The executive branch will be collecting all the submissions of the City Government's departments and will present the proposed budget to the city council sometime in August, he added.
"Atong (our) target is before the end of this year, naa na tay (we have an) approved budget to begin 2021 with a fresh budget," Moreno said.
"Kalooy sa Diyos, ang atong mga major infrastructure projects like atong hospital sa Lumbia ug hospital sa Tablon, ubay-ubay na ang atong na allocate for that from last year and this year's budget," he added.
(By the grace of God, our major infrastructure projects like the hospitals in Lubia and Tablon, we've allocated little-by-little for that from last year and this year's budget.)
During his annual report as part of the city's celebration of its 70th Charter Day, Moreno enumerated a number of infrastructure and investments made in 2019.
"As I speak now, wala maundang ang atong mga infrastructure projects, pagsemento sa mga kadalanan, pag-abri sa mga eskwelahan, pag-abri sa mga kadalanan," Moreno said.
Among the infrastructure projects and investments are: the completion of the 33.13-kilometer road concreting projects and 4.39-kilometer road opening projects costing P427.5 million; ongoing construction of 180 classrooms in various locations; P398.3 million invested for flood control and mitigation projects totaling 12 km; two waterworks projects amounting to P1 million constructed in Barangays Tuburan and Gusa; light-emitting diode (LED) lights installation in city streets amounting to P38.4 million; invested P549.4 million in other infrastructure projects (sanitary landfill, public markets, CDC buildings, barangay health centers); and commenced construction of two satellite hospitals in Barangays Lumbia and Tablon, among others.