Capitol pushes P4.5B 2018 budget

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu provincial government submitted their P4.5-billion proposed budget for 2018 to the Office of the Provincial Secretary last Wednesday afternoon.

The P4,502,056,297.22 budget is 24.3 percent more than the P3,622,590,799.55 budget for 2017.

Of this amount, Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas said that the biggest chunk amounting to P3.121 billion will be the coming share of the Capitol from the national government. This is referred to as the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

“This is the first time that the province will get P3.121 billion in IRA, which is based on population, land area and income. Last year, we got only P2.9 billion,” he said.

The formula for coming up with a local government unit’s IRA is stated in the Local Government Code. Some of its basic criteria include the size of the land area and population.

Rodas said the IRA of Cebu Province has been growing each year. He added that one contributing factor is the province’s consistent economic growth.

Aside from the IRA, the budget will also be sourced from local revenues like the proceeds of the sale of the Cebu International Convention Center at P300 million, the increase in hospital income amounting to P171 million, and an estimated appropriate surplus of P170 million.

Rodas added that the proposed budget was divided accordingly to the six Key Development Agenda of the current administration namely Health and Social Services, Countryside Development, Education and Technical Vocational Training, Environment Protection with Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, Infrastructure Development with Tourism and Investment Promotion, and Law and Order.

The operation of hospitals and public health services received 31.7 percent; Health and Social Services has a cumulative budget of P1.4 billion.

This includes the construction and improvement of infrastructure as well as the acquisition of equipment for province-run hospitals. The province will prioritize next year the provincial hospitals in Carcar City and Danao City, with a view of turning them into medical centers to decrease patient accumulation in Cebu City.

Acquisition of health vehicles to improve administrative mobility is also one of the target projects for next year.

For the first time, qualified health workers will receive hazard pay and a salary increase. With this, an increase in the revenues generated by the hospitals is also expected.

“The increase in estimated hospital income is the result of our investments in hospital equipment and personnel, thus, improving our surgical capability and other hospital services,” Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III said in his budget message to the Provincial Board.

Aside from health, the increase in the IRA share is planned to fund other pipelined projects such as the construction of a P30-million multi-level parking lot inside the Capitol compound, P137 million for the construction and rehabilitation of roads and bridges, upgrading of the Women and Children Development Center, P40 million to support environmental management projects, and acquisition of vehicles for the PNP.

Overall, 32.97 percent was allocated for general public services, 46.08 percent for social services and 20.95 percent for economic services. (FREEMAN)