CARBON COPY? Iloilo City’s 2021 budget same as 2020, mayor says

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Iloilo City’s proposed budget for 2021 will remain at around P2.7 billion, similar to its 2020 budget, without any allocations in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The office of Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas told Daily Guardian via email on Thursday that the particulars of the city’s budget for the next year are still the same as this year’s budget which was approved by the city council in 2019.

In a phone interview on Thursday, Treñas said the budget will “remain the same” because of uncertainties.

He added that this was also due to closures of businesses in the city, an effect of the lockdowns instituted by the city government to contain the transmission of COVID-19.

“The budget will remain the same level as last year because we don’t know what will happen. We saw businesses close down in the city, so we do not expect any increase. We even see a decrease,” the mayor said.

He added further that the city already has infrastructure projects under the realigned 2020 appropriations which can help those who have lost jobs.

The Land Bank of the Philippines has recently approved an P800-million loan for the construction of a city hospital.

Once the plans for the hospital have been finalized, these will be given to the city council and to Land Bank for approval.

The bulk of the budget is still allocated for the salaries and benefits of city government workers, garbage collection, operations of landfills, and maintenance of public infrastructure such as streetlights, sidewalks and plazas.

The mayor said that development projects only take up 20 percent of the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), which is 45 percent of the city’s total annual budget of 2021.

The IRA is mandated by Section 284 of the Local Government Code which stipulates that local government units shall have a share of national internal revenue taxes.

The city’s 2021 IRA is based on the certification of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on the computation of the share of LGUs from the actual collection of national internal revenue taxes for the Fiscal Year 2018.

Region 6’s 2021 IRA for cities, according to the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) Local Budget Memorandum No. 80, totals to P14.3 million.

In a press conference on Friday, the mayor also addressed concerns on budget shortfalls.

He said that the city had been tightening spending to achieve a surplus, to avoid a scenario of shortfalls for next year.

One of the steps the City Treasurer and the city’s Finance Committee made was to temporarily stop allowances for national government offices and employees.

“We are even doing it now, that we are tightening spending so that we wouldn’t be burdened next year. We want to make sure that for this year, we already have surplus, so that when the next year comes, when we have shortfalls, we have something to cover it up,” the mayor said.