Capitol proposes P4.69B budget for 2019

Primarily due to salary increase, the proposed budget of the Cebu provincial government for the year 2019 has increased by 4.2 percent as compared to this year's approved budget.

The overall proposed budget for 2019 is P4.69 billion according to Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas.

This is P190 million higher than the 2018 budget of P4.5 billion.

Of the total increase, P136 million is for salary of Capitol employees.

Rodas said that this can be attributed to additional employees in the two newly formed offices namely Provincial Tourism Office (PTO) and Cebu Provincial Investment and Promotions Office (CPIPO).

The proposal was drafted for at least two months. It was signed by Gov. Hilario Davide III yesterday and was already submitted to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

Rodas said it is a normal trend for the budget to continuously increase every year.

The same as last year, the biggest bulk goes to the health programs of the Capitol with a total allocation of P1.48 billion. Of this amount, P1.2 billion is for the improvement of 16 district and provincial hospitals. The remaining P254 million is for public health programs.

The Governor's Office is proposing a budget of P807 million which is higher than this year's P735 million.

Provincial Engineering Office (PEO) proposed a P400 million budget. Its projects for next year include creating more road networks.

If the proposed budget will be approved, the money will be sourced from the Capitol's income sources. This is composed of 80 percent Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) and 20 percent revenues from local taxes according to Rodas.

This year, the Provincial Goverment has an IRA of P3.121 billion. Rodas said they are anticipating an IRA of P3.432 billion in 2019. —