Less than half of Rama's proposal: Council oks P5.2 billion

CEBU, Philippines - One month and three days since they started the hearings, the Cebu City Council recommends a budget of P5.2 billion for 2012, which is less than half the proposal of Mayor Michael Rama.

Budget and Finance Committee Chairperson Margarita “Margot” Osmeña presented the recommendation of the committee, which they said is the most reasonable budget.

“The committee finds it prudent to come up with a P4.1B budget plus around 25 percent.”

Osmeña said that after numerous deliberations and public hearings, the city council has made a few observations on the proposed budget, which also helped them decide on the amount to be approved as well.

Rama endorsed to the council a proposed budget of P11.8 billion for 2012, which met a lot of opposition.

Acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo said that the expected revenues for 2012 cannot cover the budget.

This statement earned her the ire of the mayor, who wants her replaced.

Inclusions

The new budget would include P50 million for the urban poor residents affected by Provincial Ordinance 93-1 and P25 million for site development to improve conditions at relocation and resettlement sites.

The council has also retained P100 million for the hospitalization assistance and medicines program, and P300 million for the senior citizens program.

The allocation for the youth scholarship program was doubled to P200 million from P100 million this year and persons with disabilities would have P25 million, P9 million higher than what was allocated for this year.

Barangays can look forward to P400 million for financial assistance, and additional P175 million aid to barangays, P17 million for service vehicles and P80 million for motor vehicles.

Members of the Lupong Tagapamayapa can also look forward to a monthly allowance of P2,000 and City Nutrition Scholars would be getting between P4,000 to P5,000 monthly.

This year, members of the Lupon and the scholars only get P1,000 per month.

The barangay secretaries and treasurers would also be receiving honoraria next year.

There will also be P100 million for road concreting in mountain barangays, P5.923 M for various equipment and P356M in infrastructure projects.

A total of over P1 billion has been allocated for barangays compared to the P600M in 2010 and P400M in 2011.

There is also P104M for drainage work under the Local Development Fund and another P100M for drainage projects under the General Fund.

An allocation of P100M for the rebuilding of Unit 2 of Carbon market is also included in the budget.

The budget for drugs and medicine for Cebu City Medical Center would be doubled from 20M to 40M.

This increase is included despite the failure of CCMC Chief, Dr. Gloria Duterte, to defend the proposed budget for 2012, said Osmeña.

She said that the committee observed that CCMC’s expenses “could not be reconciled with the certified budget.”

The council has slashed allocations for foreign travel.

According to Osmeña, they noticed that there were double entries and accounting errors in the proposed annual budget like the 500M in the certified statement of receipts for 2010 compared to the statement of receipts and expenditures in the submitted 2012 proposed annual budget.

Also, it showed that their certified statement of receipts for 2010 of the Cebu City Resource Management and Development Center was P3.2 M, while in their own presentation it was 2.5M.

There was a difference as well in the submitted projected income of the Division for the Welfare and Urban Poor the one presented by DWUP head Atty. Collin Rossell during the budget hearing.

Also, the committee did not approve the budget for a proposed a park in Ramos since Dr. Librado Macaraya of the Parks and Playground Commission admitted that he has no knowledge of the said proposal.

The City Council also noted “items that seems to have bloated estimates” like the usage of oil and lubricants from a P130M in 2011 to P228 in 2012 and the P134M for the drugs and medicine of CCMC for 2012 compared to the P20M budget for 2011.

Opposition

During the council session, Councilor Eduardo Rama Jr. registered his opposition in the decision of the committee to cut the proposed budget of Mayor Rama.

Osmeña said that expenses should not dictate the revenues of the budget.

“It was agreed that the borrowing of P2B is not feasible because it does not even exist nor does it have enabling ordinance as required by Law.”

Osmeña said that this has been the longest budget deliberation in the history of the Cebu City government.

“The challenge of coming up with a balanced, achievable, realistic and workable budget not only in monetary terms but especially in the delivery of basic services to the people was a difficult and tedious one,” she added.

Rama happy, but…

Mayor Rama for his part said that he is also happy that a decision has finally been done but he said that he would still have to get a copy and go through the reasons on how the decision on the budget came about.

Rama said that all ordinances go through him and he would need to sign this before it takes effect. 

Award for Camarillo

Meanwhile, the city council, except Councilor Edu Rama, has approved a resolution to include Acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo to be an awardee during the 2012 Cebu City Charter day celebration.

The resolution said that the council wants to commend Camarillo “for being honest enough to reveal the true state of the city’s financial health which guided the members of the City Council to make sound decisions in the budget review process.” —/NLQ (FREEMAN)