Tupas seeks SP nod on P1.1B 2009 budget
Governor Niel Tupas Sr. is now seeking for legislative approval on a working budget for next year's operations of the Iloilo Provincial Government.
Pegged at P1,180,153,862, the proposed Executive Budget is some P150 million more than this year's amount. Bulk of the planned expenditures, Tupas said, will go to Social Services translated into over P450 million or 38% of the total budget.
The News Today (TNT) in a check of the 505-paged 2009 Proposed Executive Budget learned of exclusion of some current expenditure alongside the inclusion of "reincarnated" items.
For instance, the Office of the Governor will no longer have subsidy to regional offices when this year's budget had P600,000. Back anew is P1 million in "Intelligence Funds" backed by P500,000 in "Rewards and other Claims" the governor wants.
It is still the same over P2 million for gas and lubricant expense for Tupas and the same P1.3 million for the governor's consultants
Among the considerable increases will be with the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center (IRC) where current budget of over P36 million was increased to over P46.8 million in 2009.
Iloilo Sports Complex from over P10.6 million hopes to get SP nod on its planned P20.1 million 2009 budget. A big increase too for the Provincial Engineers' Office with a current budget of over P87.1 million to P102 million and the Provincial Health Office from P52.1 million to P59.4 million.
Provincial Treasurer's Office will also see an increase from P25.9 million to P39.3 million and the General Services Office from current P56 million to P60.8 million.
The Executive Budget, the governor told members of the 9th Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP), "was prepared after a thorough deliberation… through an effective process of equitably allocating the limited resources of the Iloilo Provincial Government…"
"It is important to stress at this point that the preparation of this Budget has been made possible with the discussion/interaction of the various sectors, so as to make decisions more participative and democratic," Tupas wrote the SP body in his Budget Message. "...this budget proposal manifests our determination to lay a strong foundation for the greater and progressive province."
In realizing that "greater and progressive province," the governor laid down three goals and objectives namely food security, job creation and accessibility to basic social services.
Further still were eight "development strategies" set to be employed starting off with the planned rehabilitation on Typhoon Frank devastation. Focus here is in areas of infrastructure, agriculture and environment.
Thus far, the Public Information Section is the only department with a slashed budget where its current whole year P1,478,247 will become P1,425,883.