CALASIAO, Pangasinan Nov. 12 (PNA)—The Sangguniang Bayan (SB) here has passed the town’s budget for 2016 in the amount of Php 200.5 million.
Of the amount, at least 36.67% or Php 73, 538, 836.85 was allotted for personal services, Php 70, 263, 586, for the maintenance and other operating expenditures;Php 4, 065, 000, for capital outlay; PHp 9, 000, 000, for the financial expenses; and Php 43, 673, 141, for other special purpose appropriations.
However, prior to the approval of the annual budget, Councilors Joseph Armand Bauzon and John Vincent Acosta questioned the allocation of additional funding for the completion of the Multi- Purpose Building- Calasiao Sports and Commercial Complex and improvement of the Slaughterhouse.
“We have already loaned Php 75 million for the two projects wherein Php 55 million was budgeted for the Sports Complex while nine million pesos was for the slaughterhouse and we thought that with those amount the projects would have been finished by now”, said Bauzon.
He said aside from the loan, the SB realigned Php 4 to 5 million pesos from the budget this year as an additional funding for the sports complex, while the municipality gave its counterpart for the slaughterhouse.
“We were told by Vice Mayor Roy Macanlalay that the budget for the slaughterhouse still lacks five million pesos while the sports complex still needs 4.5 million pesos for its completion”, said Bauzon.
In the 2016 budget, a total of 4.5 million pesos was allotted for the completion of the sports complex, 1.5 million pesos for the purchase and installation of electrical transformer and three million pesos for the sound system and flooring and some three million pesos for the improvement of the slaughterhouse.
“These amounts could have been used for other projects and it has been 10 years since the construction of the complex started, if it took that long then we shouldn’t have loaned and instead allocated amounts in the span of ten years, at least we could have saved the interest”, Bauzon said.
Calasiao will pay Php 21.6 million for the loan amortization with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) in 2016.p>However, despite their opposition, the budget was passed by the majority of the members of the SB.
“We had no choice but to sign the budget since we are only questioning some of its portions but not all, since it is for the good of our town and people and we respect the decision of our colleagues as well as the executive”, said Bauzon.
The town has a budget of Php 9, 972, 028.20 for its Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund and one million pesos for its Puto Festival next year among others.
“We leave the decision to the SP now”, said Bauzon. (PNA)