PB Approves P325-M Supplemental Budget

The Cebu Provincial Board on Thursday approved the first supplemental budget totaling to P325 million.

The budget resolution, sponsored by PB member Grecilda Sanchez, being head of the committee on Budget and Appropriation, was carried on mass motion special session.

Provicinal Budget Officer Danilo Rodas said of the amount, P23 million will go to the employees, who Gov. Hilario Davide III, has promised, during the province’s 445th Founding Anniversary celebration last week, a P15,000 incentives. Rodas said he hopes the budget will be released to the workers on Friday.

The biggest chunk of the budget will go to the “development projects,” which will eat up P207 million from the total amount, said Rodas. According to the approved PB resolution, which carries the budget ordinance, the budget has been itemized for “construction/rehabilitation/furnishing/maintenance of buildings and other structures” of the province.

The budget officer said P4 million of the amount also goes to the feasibility study of the proposed transaxial highway, and around P1 million to the “road coordinating investing program.”

He said P60 million from the same budget is allocated to the operations of the province-run hospitals.

Rodas said one of the sources of the funds is the P21 million, which the province will get from the termination of agreement with Kepco-SPC.

Early this year the Capitol and Kepco SPC, which operated a 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in the City of Naga, agreed to terminate the 25-year contract with the province, signed in 2009. From that termination, the Capitol will receive a USD 500,000 fee after the power company waived the contract’s initial payment in favor of the province.