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Baguio City budget stalled anew

BAGUIO CITY (Feb. 9) — The non-submission of the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) through the city planning office, 20% development fund and proposed increases of departmental budgets not included in the originally submitted budget, delayed the approval of the 2006 city budget, Atty. Leticia Clemente told the city council during its regular session last Monday (Feb. 6).

Clemente explained that if there were proposed increases to the departmental budgets, then the total budget would change. She added that she did not recall having a reenacted budget for such a long time. “In the past, the longest was two weeks only,” she said.

Budget deliberations already started December last year but the council could not act on the budget because the persons and the documents needed to shed light on the budget proposal had no time to appear before the city council.

The proposed executive budget as submitted by Mayor Braulio D. Yaranon, with the assistance of city budget office and city administrator’s office, is P 730 million.

Clemente also said that all department budgets had been approved except for the city administrator’s department because of the proposed increased of P 2 million.

According to Atty. Peter Fianza, city administrator, the increase is due to the allocation for the tourism division covering financial incentives to athletes. He cited that in the past year, an excess of 2.2 million to the budget was incurred due to incentives given to athletes of Baguio city, which, are not included in the budget.

Councilor Edilberto Tenefrancia further said that a thorough background check should be done to the athletes receiving incentives. He explained that they found out that some athletes receiving incentives were not Baguio residents.

Clemente also told the city council that the city budget office also issued a budget memorandum to all departments. In the meantime, the budget last year would be followed until a new budget is approved. She added that the city would continue to pay salaries of city employees, water and electricity bills and department supplies.

Some city councilors also expressed their concerns over the budget.

Meanwhile, Councilor Fariñas suggested to the city budget officer to consider a budget for the purchase of a shuttle bus to tour visitors to the city. He said that Batac, Ilocos Norte and Itogon, Benguet have shuttles while Baguio still do not have one despite being a tourism-driven city. Farinas said that the city council had already proposed a resolution concerning the shuttle bus.

Vice Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. on the other hand suggested that an item of the budget as assistance to the Alay sa Kalikasan should be included to accommodate the operation of cleaning the city.

Clemente reiterated that it is not feasible. She stressed that if they will grant the said budget assistance, other agencies would be swarming at her office to demand additional budgets. She added that the city has just enough money to meet the services and needs of the important agencies and the city government. She said that the budget for the Alay sa Kalikasan project is incorporated in the department or committee where it belongs.

When asked how long the budget deliberations would last, Clemente said that the proposed budget would be implemented if the city council approves it. She added that the departmental budgets are already finished. The budget for the 20% development fund, which is not yet submitted by the city mayor is the only backlog.

Tenefrancia said that the council is eager to speed up the budget deliberations. However, he said that they could not do it because they were not able to confer with the needed person during the sessions insinuating the city mayor’s negligence.

Councilor Leandro Yangot also added that given the chance, they are willing to cooperate.

According to earlier Nordis reports, Yaranon told the press that he is upholding the CDC decision stating that development projects needs to be properly rationalized and prioritized to address all the sectoral needs raised in the CDC planning congress as captured in the resolution of its executive committee.

Evelyn Lorenzo, secretary to Yaranon, also said that this was to ensure fair and prudent prioritization amid the large volume of proposed projects submitted as against the meager budget allotted for the 20% development fund, which amounts to P50 million in the proposed budget. # Florence L. Batawang and Angely Lubo/UP Interns for NORDIS

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