THE Cebu City Council has again failed to deliberate on and approve the proposed annual budget of the City Government next year due to changes in the amount of the proposal.
From a P6.1-billion proposal in the budget ordinance, the committee on budget and finance has raised it to P7.2 billion, or similar to the amount that Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier proposed.
During the deliberation yesterday, Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña questioned if the budget ordinance endorsed for final deliberation was the same proposal that they discussed during the special session last week.
This, considering that there is a change in the amount.
Margot said that changes in the amount should go through the process again before these get the approval of the Council.
For her part, Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera, who chairs the committee on budget and finance, said there is no need for her to withdraw the proposed budget ordinance because the additional amount is just an amendment.
But after several technicalities were raised during the discussion, Pesquera withdrew the proposed budget ordinance.
After that, Councilor James Cuenco also moved that a caucus be done tomorrow among the members of the majority and minority blocs, so they can agree on the amendment of the annual budget.
Different
In an interview, Pesquera said that although they endorsed the same amount as that of Osmeña’s proposal, the items under it are different.
Pesquera said that the additional amount they enclosed in the P7.2-billion annual budget proposal include P800 million for the payment of the remaining amount of the South Road Properties (SRP) loan.
She said they chose to include the payment of the SRP loan since the City has money to pay off the debt even if the mayor has no plans to pay it in full.
The committee also increased the budget intended to buy medicines under the City Health Department to allow the office to implement the Long Life Medical program that the executive department has been pushing.
Asked why they did not restore the items with P1 allocation after the amount of the proposed annual budget for 2017 was raised again to P7.2 billion, Pesquera said Team Rama councilors want to prioritize some items.
Pesquera also said they want to give a chance to the City Treasurer’s Office to collect the amount they projected as the income of the City next year, which has been identified as source of fund for the annual budget.
“We want to give the executive the benefit of the doubt, if they can really collect the amount they projected for the income of the City next year,” she said.