Cebu City starts to implement Php 6.4-B budget

The Cebu City Budget Office has started to implement the city’s Php 6.4-billion annual budget for this year.

Cebu City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia said they started using this year’s appropriation for the payroll for the salaries and wages of city employees after she received a copy of the budget ordinance covering the 2016 annual budget.

Gumia said the budget ordinance had no signature from Cebu City Acting Mayor Edgardo Labella.

But Gumia said the budget ordinance had a notation, or a remark, from the Sangguniang Panlungsod Secretariat, which says “deemed approved.”

Earlier, the Cebu City Council passed a resolution directing the budget office to enforce the 2016 annual budget.

The local finance committee, to which the budget office is a member, did not immediately implement the 2016 annual budget since Labella and members of the majority bloc of the council had opposing positions on the validity of the 2016 budget ordinance.

Labella had informed the council he could not act on the ordinance because it lacked one vote for it to be validly passed.

On the other hand, the council’s majority bloc reiterated that the ordinance, which was approved last Dec. 18 through a 9-4 vote, was valid. (PNA) RMA/EB/EDS