Final deliberation today: Council to pass 2015 budget

CEBU, Philippines - Wanting more time to go over the document, members of the Cebu City Council yesterday deferred approval of the P13.4-billion 2015 budget.

The council will instead hold a special session today to finally deliberate on the budget appropriation, which was reduced by the Committee on Budget and Finance to P13.4 billion from the P18.9 billion originally proposed by the executive department.

City Councilor Gerardo Carillo “begged” for the deferment of the budget approval because he failed to peruse the entire proposal, explaining that he only received the 101-page document yesterday morning.

“I doubt if everybody read all the items. I’m begging that we defer first the approval because P6 billon was removed or deleted from the proposed budget. I want an intelligent discussion why and what projects were removed,” he said.

City Councilor Noel Eleuterio Wenceslao agreed, saying, “I tried to review every item but I failed due to lack of time.”

“It’s our obligation to really take a look on every item because this is a very important people’s budget. What are these items affected by the reduction,” he said.

Carillo, who left Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK), emphasized that members should be given two days to review all items in the budget prior to its approval, as provided for under the City Council’s house rules.

But BOPK member City Councilor Sisinio Andales, who favored the proposed budget’s passage, moved for the suspension of the two-day notice resulting to the division of the house.

In a close vote of 9-8, city councilors allied with BOPK approved the suspension of the house rules so that the final budget deliberation would be held today instead of Monday.

City Councilor Margarita Osmeña, committee on budget and finance head, said they reduced the budget to what is “attainable and realistic,” as city treasurer Diwa Cuevas disclosed that the city cannot hit this year’s target revenue of P5.8 billion.

As of November 30, the city collected only P4.5 billion, which is P1.3 billion short of the revenue target.

Osmeña also cited the approved P321 million appropriation for capital outlay in 2013 budget where P261 million was unused. She added that  P1 billion  for capital outlay this year is also still “intact.”

“Historical data plays an important role in determining the basis for the proposed annual budget and in validating the performance of the city government in terms of collection and spending,” read the committee on budget and finance report.

Osmeña said that after 10 budget hearings and numerous meetings and discussions,  her committee came up with P13.4 billion, which will be sourced from tax revenues (P2.98 billion), non-tax revenues (P770 million), external sources (P1.5 billion), sale of disposable assets (P4.5 billion), SM and Filinvest amortizations (P490 million), auction sale of real properties (P50 million) and domestic borrowings (P3.1 billion).

The committee emphasized that the reduced budget “was given its utmost priority as well as the projects submitted by the barangays through the City Development Council and at the same ensuring that no sector would be forgotten.”

Carillo, however, argued that the committee does not have the right to reduce or slash the budget proposed by the executive department. – Kristine B. Quintas/RHM (FREEMAN)