Tacloban proposes ‘Yolanda budget’

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—The city treasurer defended a nearly 100-percent increase in the city government’s proposed budget next year as a “Yolanda budget” that contained allotments for programs needed to bring survivors of the supertyphoon back on their feet.

Vicente Dy, city treasurer, said the proposed P940 million was indeed higher than the city government’s current budget of P550 million.

The proposed budget carried these allotments—P47 million in calamity fund from the current P43 million, P10.9 million for the purchase of lots as resettlement sites, P19 million for road construction and widening, P20 million for a proposed building that would house a Climate Change Adaptation Center and P50 million for the expansion of the City Hall to make it “disaster resilient.”

“Our theme under the proposed budget is building back a better and safer Tacloban,” Dy said.

While the proposed budget is higher than the current one, Dy said the projected income was lower as a result of the devastation that Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) left in the city.

“We cannot say that our businesses have recovered 100 percent. That’s the reason I lowered the (income) projection for next year,” Dy said.

From the previous P437.6-million target, Dy lowered the income target to just P397.3 million.

Aside from local sources, city officials hope to raise funds to finance next year’s budget from the city’s share in the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

For 2015, Tacloban expects an IRA share of P542.6 million.

Dy said the proposed budget next year of the city was higher because the city expected a higher IRA share by at least P64 million.