BAGUIO CITY—The City Council approved the local government’s 2017 budget amounting to P1.776 billion, which is P10 million higher than the earlier proposal of the executive branch.
The additional budget will be sourced from the sale of fertilizers produced by the city’s two Environmental Recycling System machines based at the old Irisan dumpsite.
The extra money will be used for additional assistance to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center amounting to P1.5 million; completion of the rehabilitation of the Malcolm Square facilities amounting to P2.5 million; completion of the barangay hall at Kayang Hilltop worth P1.2 million; and the purchase of two trucks for the City Engineer’s Office amounting to P4.8 million.
The local government will be sourcing the city’s budget from its beginning balance of P230 million, tax revenue amounting to P418.95 million, non-tax revenue of P248.72 million, and external resources amounting to P868.55 million.
Baguio will be spending on personal services amounting to P649.042 million, maintenance and other operating expenditures (P714.47 million), capital outlay (P402.71 million), non-office expenditures (P118.72 million), disaster risk reduction and management fund (P76.81 million) and local development fund (P198.81 million).
The city council provided a budget of P12.3 million for the hauling of the city’s residual waste to the Capas, Tarlac sanitary landfill, while the remaining P75 million from the environment and sanitary services budget was transferred to other maintenance and other operating expenses or MOOE until the city General Services Office submits the contract between the local government and the garbage hauler for the council’s confirmation.
The councilors also included as a condition in the approval of the budget the submission of all contracts entered by the local government and private and public entities for confirmation pursuant to the provisions of the Local Government code of the Philippines that empowers the local legislative body to confirm all agreements entered by the local chief executive.
On the other hand, the local legislators also required the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. to submit its detailed expenses of its income-generating activities pursuant to the findings and recommendations of the Commission on Audit (COA) as contained in an earlier Audit Observation Memorandum.
That mandates the BFFFI to have a confirmed agreement with the local government to specifically outline the duties and responsibilities of the concerned parties in the staging of the city’s major crowd drawing event.
The council stood firm on the fact that the BFFFI must comply with what is being required from them by the COA to prevent the reiteration of the contents of the Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) that was already handed down for correcting whatever deficiencies in the conduct of the month-long festivities in the city.