CITY TO OPERATE ON P3.6 BILLION BUDGET FOR 2025

January 4, 2025 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY

The city government will be operating on a P3.6 billion annual budget for this year after the local legislative body authorized the appropriation of the said amount for the current fiscal year covering the various expenditures for the operation of the city. Under Ordinance No. 72, series of 2024, the expenditures of the local government that will be provided with the necessary funding are personal services – P1,076,988,356.00; maintenance and other operating expenses – P1,318,886,744.00, capital outlay – P164,803,900.00, development fund – P297,413,000.00 and disaster risk reduction and management fund – P142,600,000.00.

The fiscal year 2025 local expenditure program is supported by income estimates from local and external sources
such as beginning balance – P150,000,000.00 and local internal sources – P1,185,130,000.00; external sources – P1,665,562,000.00 The local sources will be composed of tax revenue – P708,380,000.00 and non-taxes venue – P476,750,000.00. Further, the external sources will be composed of share from the National Tax Allotment – P1,462,062,000.00; share from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) – P200,000,000.00 and share from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) – P3,500,000.00.

In accordance with Section 336 of Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 as amended, the City Mayor and the Vice-mayor as presiding officer of the local legislative body are authorized to augment any item in the approved annual budget for their respective offices from savings in other items within the same expense class of their respective appropriations. or balances of any programmed appropriation free from any obligation or encumbrance, still available after the satisfactory completion, or the unavoidable discontinuance or abandonment of
the work, activity or purpose for which the appropriation is authorized or arising from unpaid compensation and related cause pertaining to vacant positions and leaves of absence without pay.

Moreover, augmentation implies the existence in the budget of an item, project, activity, or purpose with an appropriation which upon implementation or subsequent evaluation of needed resources, is determined to be deficient. The proposed annual budget of the city government was thoroughly discussed in scheduled budget deliberations conducted by the local legislative body together with the City Mayor and all the department heads.
Earlier, the local chief executive submitted for consideration and approval by the city council the proposed fiscal year 2025 local expenditure program of the local government amounting to PhP3.6 billion.

Dexter A. See/ABN