Debt payments comprise bulk of Mandaue budget

MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes proposed an annual budget of P1.6 billion for next year, slightly higher than by P6.6 million from this year’s appropriation.

Of the total proposed appropriation, P114,763,000 is allotted to debt servicing, P53 million of which will be derived from the general funds.

About P56 million will go to fund the public market and P5,763,000 million from the slaughterhouse budget.

The city government also allotted P27 million that will be distributed to the 27 barangays and another P72.5 million as calamity fund.

Personnel services gets an appropriation of P243,375,004.19 million while development fund is set at P82,721,997.80 million, which is not less than  20 percent of the city’s projected Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share of P413,609,982.

Cortes, in his budget message, said the total amount does not  exceed the city’s total estimated income.

He said items like the 20 percent development fund, employee benefits, aid to component barangays, loan amortization, maintenance of city roads and bridges, anti-drug campaign are allotted a fair share of the budget.

Mandaue City is expecting to earn P33 million from the Mandaue City Hospital, P34.1 million from the public market, P2.15 million from the city sports complex and more than P14.5 million from the city slaughterhouse.

Cortes said the budget will also finance programs like solid waste management, environmental protection and socioeconomic programs.  Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos