THE administration of Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia is proposing a “realistic budget” of P17.9 billion for 2025 to the Cebu City Council for approval, an 80 percent reduction from the P100 billion budget proposed by the dismissed mayor, Michael Rama.
At the Capitol, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia is proposing a P25 billion budget for 2025, higher from the P23 billion she asked in 2024.
The mayor at a press conference on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, said the proposed budget was a significant drop from the proposed P100 billion in 2024 and P50 billion in 2023.
The budget proposal will be submitted to the City Council for deliberation during its regular session on Wednesday, Oct. 23.
In the proposed budget, around P2.4 billion was allocated to personnel services while P1.1 billion was allocated for the financial assistance to senior citizens. The combined amount, Garcia said, already covers around 20 percent of the proposed budget.
Garcia said P16.1 billion was allocated to the general fund proper, while P1.9 billion was earmarked for special account funds.
Realistic budget
The 2025 proposed budget, Garcia said, is 80 percent smaller than last year’s proposal. He said the amount conformed to his aim to propose and approve a realistic budget.
During his tenure as the vice mayor, he saw the previous budget proposals as “unrealistic”
“Dili nga P25 (2024 approved budget) or P50 billion (2023 budget proposal) ang atong expenses but ang atong nakolekta kay P15-18 billion (then, it is an) unrealistic budget,” said Garcia.
The Commission on Audit (COA) earlier flagged the “unrealistic” income projection of Cebu City for the past five years, including its P50 billion projected income in 2023 for potentially compromising projects due to insufficient cash back-up.
COA, in its 2023 audit report, said the deficit of actual income of the City has been increasing since 2019, with the latest deficiency skyrocketing to P42 billion.
“This already shows abnormal financial projection, which can obviously affect the City’s capability to formulate a sound financial plan as required under the law,” said the state auditors.
The 2025 budget proposal, Garcia said, is aligned with the projected income of the City Government for next year.
“Dili ma shortfall ang atung income, unya nag-sobra ang atong expenses. I only wanted to be realistic and I want to manage the expectation of our people,” he said.
The mayor is also optimistic the City Council will approve next year’s budget without too much scrutiny.
“I think the councilors will say ‘Alleluia’ because now we have a realistic budget. That’s my personal take,” he added.
The mayor also assured that the proposed budget and the implementation of identified projects and programs are very doable, as these have been pre-verified such as the scrutiny on the program of works and estimates.
“Before ni masulod diri sa budget (proposal), ang kining mga infrastructure project down sa barangay level like road concreting and building of bridge, footpath kay para if next year diha pa mahibaw-an nga naay problema, karon palang kay ma-include na na,” he said.
Under the Local Development Fund, Garcia said the practice before was to seek project proposals from barangays, however, problems arose when barangays were not able check other concerns such as road right-of-way or lot ownership.
Budget proposal
The Garcia budget includes an allocation of P240 million for road paving and repairs of various streets and the procurement of drugs and medicines.
A total of P640 million has been allocated as financial assistance to various barangays, including P240 million for the Sangguniang Kabataan.
Garcia also allocated P1.2 billion for health and education with expenses for the free education program getting the biggest chunk at P565 million, P300 million for the City’s education program and P400 million for the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program.
For environment, Garcia allocated P700 million with P500 million earmarked for garbage disposal and collection and P200 million for comprehensive climate change mitigation projects.
The mayor also allocated P250 million to the socialized housing program and another P200 million for lot acquisition for the program.
For the City’s digital transformation, Garcia allotted P200 million for the establishment of the Cebu City Web GSIN (Government Service Information Network) and RGS (Regional Government System) Integration and Digital Twin Technology, and another P200 million for phase three of the City’s digitalization of the Traffic Signal Lights System project.
The City’s infrastructure projects got an allocation of P180 million with P50 million for the construction and renovation of the archive building and P100 million for the construction of the new legislative building. Construction of the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Fisheries building was allotted around P30 million.
...at the Capitol, guv seeks P25 billion budget for 2025
The Provincial Board approved in its first reading the proposed resolution adopting and approving the 2025 Annual Investment Program (AIP) for the Province during its regular session at the Capitol on Monday.
In the resolution presented by Sixth District Rep. Glenn Soco, the AIP is to be funded by the general fund proper and income from operations of the Cebu North and South Bus Terminals, hospitals, inter-local government units (LGU) waterworks system and other funding sources.
Other resolutions Soco presented included P14 billion for the Provincial Development Council, P371 million for the disaster risk reduction and management plan and P1.25 billion for the gender and development plan.
“This is the largest budget in the entire history of Cebu Province, and we’re incredibly proud of the Provincial Government for finding ways to increase its local income sources and allocate more funds for projects and programs as outlined in our annual investment plan. It’s truly remarkable and something we can all be proud of,” Soco said in Cebuano.
He said that for many years, the Province’s development fund has always been more than the 20 percent National Tax Allotment development fund required by the Department of Budget and Management for LGUs.
“Our budget of P25 billion, of which only P6 billion comes from the National Government, with the remaining coming from local sources. Indeed, our local income is a major contributor to our budget, as well as our economic enterprises. We have already witnessed the positive results of our initiatives,” he said. / with CDF