Councilors were careful about budget cuts: Dahino

By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

COUNCILOR Edna Dahino on Monday said councilors made sure that they were careful in slashing some items in Mayor Oscar Moreno’s proposed city hall budget for this year in order to keep the reductions as minimal as possible, and so as not to hurt the local government’s services.

Dahino, chair of the city council’s committee on finance and appropriations, opined that the P5.5-billion budget approved by the city council the other day was “fair”.

The city council gave the Moreno administration a budget that’s over P200 million less than what the mayor proposed. The 2018 budget was unanimously approved.

The result: city hall’s budget for operations was reduced to P5.1 billion budget but with a special account for economic enterprises amounting to P417 thousand.

But the 2018 budget is about a billion pesos more than what city hall had in 2017.

The executive budget for statutory and contractual obligations with the Land Bank of the Philippines was slashed from P34 million as proposed to P13 million.

Other budget cuts:

• The budget for retirement benefits was reduced from P13 million to P10 million.
• Terminal leave benefits were lowered from P44 million to P40 million.
• Lump sum appropriation for performance-based bonuses (general fund) from P48 million to P24 million.
• Electricity expenses were reduced from P140 million to P130 million.
• The five-percent Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund was slashed from P229 million to P214 million.
• Disaster prevention and mitigation was reduced from P45 million to P34.5 million.
• Land appropriation and exploration was cut down from P100 million to P80 million.
• The budget for infrastructure projects and programs was slashed from P1.1 billion to P861 million.

“As I see it, it was only fair that some of the items were reduced minimally. Some areas need more focus and proper appropriation. Basta maayo lang ang katuyuan dili kita mosupak,” she said.

Vice Mayor  Raineir Joaquin Uy said the 2018 budget was carefully reviewed.

“It is a fair budget. There were slashed items that we saw to be less important. Nakita namo nga dunay dili pa angayan nga gastuhan mao nga among giminusan,” he said.

He said the budget cuts amounted to P240.8 million.