Oro dads endorse P11.2-B CDO 2024 Executive Budget

The members of the 20th City Council, sitting as Committee of the Whole, favorably indorsed the Cagayan de Oro Executive Budget for FY 2024 during its budget hearing on November 7, 2023 at the Mallberry Suites Business Hotel.

On behalf of City Mayor Rolando A. Uy, Acting City Budget Officer Roxanne Ravidas presented the proposed city’s Annual Budget for FY 2024 covering the general fund and special account for operations of the city's local economic enterprises in the amounts of P10.36 billion and P1.163 billion, respectively, for a total of P11.2 billion.

She said the proposed budget is the outcome of the collaborative process with inputs from every department and the city’s management team that addresses the city’s most pressing operational needs.

“With the current fiscal situation, we need to manage our finances well, both revenue and expenditure. We will fund the priority sectors at the right time and implement projects in place,” Ravidas explained.

She added that the proposed 2024 budget is based on Mayor Uy's RISE development and governance agenda. It is centered around four themes: “R” for regional leadership: metropolitanization, accessibility, and connectivity (P1.594B); “I” for institutional development and participatory governance (P1.620B); “S” for safety, security, and human development (P3.696B); and “E” for economic recovery (P4.290B).

Comparing the 2024 and 2023 annual budgets, Ravidas presented a difference of P3.4 billion inclusive of the P2.7 billion in local borrowing approved by the City Council. There is, in fact, a net increase in operations equal to P300 million, or 8.9% of the annual budget for 2023, she further stated.

It may be recalled the City Council, during its regular session two weeks ago, enacted an ordinance authorizing the City Mayor to borrow and contract a loan with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) in the total amount of P2.7 billion for the land acquisition (P1.5 billion), and for the construction of the New City Hall Building Complex (P920 million) and Land Development (P250 million).

Other flagship programs and projects of the 2024 Executive Budget include road opening and widening; re-blocking/improvement; concrete paving and slope; flood mitigation and bank protection structure; drainage and water system; public buildings and miscellaneous structures; student scholarship fund; city streets, roads, and major thoroughfares lighting; City College of Cagayan de Oro; Universal Health Care and other response and recovery programs; tamper-resistant security seals with verifier system; Project LUNHAW: Year II; resource mobilization project; Bulawanong Serbisyo Publiko sa Baryo (Klarex nga Serbisyo sa Baryo); and Avian Flu Outbreak and African Swine Fever (ASF) response and recovery, The Gavel learned.