PB to slash Capitol budget

THE Cebu Provincial Board will reduce  the P3.6 billion budget for 2013  proposed by suspended Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to make it “more realistic.”

“We will have a budget of less than P3 billion but more than  P2 billion,” said   PB Member Peter John Calderon, chairman of the committee on budget and appropriations.

“Our basic services will not be affected because we don’t have zero allocations for specific purposes. We made sure of that,” he told reporters.

He said the province failed to meet its revenue collection target of P2.6 million for 2012 and that the PB has to be prudent a repeat of its financial problem discovered in late December.

Based on the report of the provincial treasurer, the province  had over P200 million in liabilities  as against only P90 million available in the General Fund.

A special PB session will be held next week to  take up the 2013 budget.

He said  the allocation for Miscellaneous and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) will be reduced  by 10 percent./ Reporter Ador Vincent S. Mayol