Gwen submits biggest-ever P3.6-billion budget for 2012

ON yesterday’s deadline for the submission of next year’s budget, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia  submitted the Capitol’s   biggest budget in the province’s history in the amount of P3.6 billion.

This is more than last year’s P2.6 billion and exceeds the proposed 2011 budget of P3.01 billion.

The bulk will go to the Capitol’s Development Fund and the governor’s office.

The budget of the vice governor also went up to  P38.3  million, a contrast to last year’s complaint by the late vice governor Greg Sanchez Jr. when his office budget was reduced by 60 percent at P18 million.

His successor, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, is affiliated with the Bakud party of the Durano clan, which is aligned with the Garcia administration’s One Cebu party.

Garcia said, “The budget advocates the principles of good governance, with emphasis on participative governance in planning and budgeting as the key to attain fiscal discipline, allocative efficiency and effective utilization and management of funding resources.”

Provincial and city councils must approve their budget by  Dec. 31.

For Cebu province,  the Office of the Governor has  one of the largest allocations at P447.178 million.

The bulk or P776 million goes to the Capitol’s Development Fund for various programs and projects.

The services were categorized as  general public, social and economic services.

The new budget also allocates P72.672 million for the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), P38.313 million for the Office of the Vice Governor, and P6.499 million for each of the offices of the 15 provincial board members.

Also, the province’s 18 hospitals will run on a P60.582 million budget for 2012.

In her budget message, Garcia said the province, for the fifth straight year, showed its relative independence from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share, which accounts for  44 percent of Cebu’s required funding sources. Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus