THE renovation of Cebu City legislative department’s current building and its plan to construct a new one at the South Road Properties (SRP) will not push through this year, a local official said.
This as the City Government has not yet reached its annual budget of P50 billion with two months remaining before the end of 2023.
Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said in a phone interview on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, that they are re-proposing the P100 million budget for the renovation of the current legislative building on M.C. Briones St., and an additional P400 million budget for the proposed transfer of the legislative building to the SRP in the city’s annual budget for 2024.
2024 proposed budget
Garcia, who is also the City Council’s presiding officer, said the executive department has already submitted its proposed 2024 annual budget of P100 billion to the council, with initial reports indicating that a significant portion of the budget will be allocated for “climate change-related” programs and projects.
Garcia said Mayor Michael Rama’s P100 billion annual budget proposal has already been referred to the Council’s committee on budget and finance for review.
The council will schedule a committee hearing, during which they will hear the local and finance committee regarding the sources of funds and different departments defending their respective budgets.
In December 2022, Garcia told VoxPop Cebu that the Cebu City Government wants to spend P800 million for the construction of a new City Hall at the SRP, with P400 million each proposed as the budget for the new executive building and the new legislative building.
City Planning and Development Office head Joseph Michael “Yumi” Espina said that aside from housing the City’s departments and divisions, the proposed City Hall would also serve as a complex for national government agencies.
As for the executive department’s proposed P100 billion budget, Garcia said Thursday that his office has yet to evaluate the entire proposal.
The vice mayor further said that the legislative department has only a few proposed infrastructure projects under capital outlay. Still, they aim to renovate the legislative building “to make it more PWD-friendly and in keeping with our heritage” and to fund the construction of the new legislative building in SRP.
Garcia said they have allocated budget for the construction of a new legislative building at the SRP, but the project did not push through this year.
“We have allocated a budget for that, but we were not able to use it, because we have more pressing priorities,” he said in a mix of English and Cebuano.
City’s failure
The City Government failed to meet the projected P50 billion budget for 2023. City Treasurer Mare Vae Reyes reported that the City Treasurer’s Office had collected a gross amount of P7,556,320,087.76 as of October.
Based on the approved budget ordinance for 2023, more than P20 billion would have been allocated for the construction of 200 medium-rise buildings to accommodate informal settlers or families occupying privately owned lots.
The proposed appropriation showed that P35.73 billion should have been spent on capital outlay, P10.32 billion for maintenance and other operating expenses, P2.19 billion for personnel services, and P1.45 billion as a subsidy to special accounts.
The majority of the 2023 budget, totaling P44.53 billion, should have come from tax revenues, with additional funding sources including national tax allotment (NTA) at P2.74 billion, non-tax revenues at P2.12 billion, and a share of P300 million from economic zones.
However, the City Treasurer’s Office reported that, as of October, the share from the real property tax was P1.2 billion, business tax at P2.5 billion, NTA at P2.7 billion, with the rest coming from fees, charges, and other miscellaneous earnings.
“A budget is just a budget...(If) you project to spend P100 billion in 2024, but the revenue that you gain from taxes and other sources of income is only, let’s say P20 billion. So, what will you do with the P80 billion difference? The answer is simple. You don’t spend what you don’t have. You have to prioritize,” Garcia said.
Fulfilled plans
Despite the legislative department’s failure to renovate its current building and construct a new one at the SRP, Garcia said they have plans that were able to implement this year: the hiring of five additional job order employees for each office of the councilors, who played a crucial role in executing approved ordinances and projects, and the improvement of current City Council’s media booth, which is now equipped with better cameras for online broadcasting of the weekly regular session.