Health office gets biggest chunk of 2018 Capitol budget

The committee on budget and appropriation of the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) is set to hold a series of budget hearings which will start after the proposed P4.5 billion budget for 2018 is passed on first reading.

The proposed budget is part of the agenda in the Nov. 6 regular session of the PB.

PB Member Celestino Martinez III, chairman of the committee on budget and appropriation, said he plans to start the series of budget hearings with the different department heads starting Nov. 7 and he targets to finish by third or last week of November.

The committee is targeting to meet with five to six department heads a day.

The P4,502,056,297.22 budget is 24.3 percent more than the P3,622,590,799.55 budget for 2017. The biggest chunk of the budget amounting to P3.121 billion will be the coming share of the Capitol from the national government or the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

The office of the Provincial Health Office (PHO) gets the biggest allocation with P773.9 million. This is part of the P1.4 billion allocated for the province's entire health program.

Next is the Office of the Provincial Governor with P745.1 million or an increase of P130 million from this year's appropriation.

Proposed budget for development fund is P694.9 million and P199.7 million is proposed for the Office of the Provincial Administrator.

The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) is given an allocation of P197.6 million or P15 million higher than their budget for this year.

The Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) gets P150.1 million while the Sangguniang Panlalawigan has an allocation of P142.9 million.

The Provincial General Services has an allocation of P138 million and P124.7 million for the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC).

The Provincial Agriculturist Office has an allocation of P109.7 million and the Office of the Provincial Treasurer gets an allocation of P109.4 million.

Only the 11departments have a proposed budget of more than P100 million.

The office with the lowest share is the Provincial Cooperative Office (PCO) with only P9.1 million.

The Secretary of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan has P10.4 million allocation; Provincial Budget Office, P11.7 million; Provincial Information and Communication Technology Office, P21.5 million; Provincial Legal Office, P23.8 million and the Office of the Provincial Assessor gets P25.2 million.

The rest of the offices have an allocation of more than P30 million but less than P100 million. These are the Cebu Provincial Drug Anti-Drug Abuse Office(CPADAO), P30.6 million; Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office(PENRO), P33.5 million; Office of the Provincial Veterinarian, P34.6 million and the Office of the Provincial Planning and Development Coordinator, P36 million.

The Provincial Information Office has a proposed budget of P37.8 million; Office of the Provincial Accountant, P38.2 million, Office of the Vice Governor, P71.1 million and the Office of the Provincial Engineer, P94.1 million.

Most offices have 6 percent to 10 percent in the budget as compared to this year's allocation.

But the PCO has the biggest increase which is 141.64 percent increase followed by the Office of the Provincial Administrator's office with an increase of 100.51 percent while the PHO has an 58.54 percent increase.

The CPADAO has an increase of 52.14 percent. —

Lorraine Mitzi A. Ambrad/MBG