Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said yesterday that he is still studying the 2021 budget of the city government amounting to ₱ 2.6 billion before it can be taken up by the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
Familiaran said that the SP still has two months to study the budget and Councilor Cindy Rojas, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, has yet to start the budget hearing.
Earlier, Mayor Evelio Leonardia said that the 2021 budget of the city government has decreased by 13 percent compared to ₱ 3 billion in 2020.
Leonardia said the decrease in the budget is due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
He said all the departments will be affected except the City Health Office.
This is how we give priority to our health concerns amid the pandemic, Leonardia said.
He lamented that it is the first time that the budget has gone down compared to the past years.
“It took us 80 years to reach our first billion, 9 years to reach our 2nd billion and only 2 years to reach our 3rd billion last year. It showed Bacolod’s growth is accelerating very fast for the past two years. But because of the pandemic the 2021 budget has decreased by 13 percent,” he said.
(Dolly Yasa via The Daily Guardian (TDG), photo courtesy by TDG)