ILOILO – The provincial government will have a P3.234-billion budget next year.
During Friday’s regular session, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved the allocation on third and final reading.
It is six percent higher than this year’s approved budget of P3.02 billion and anchored on the program of the current administration dubbed as “Rehabilitation and Transformation of the Province of Iloilo to Catalyze Recovery (RT-PCR).”
Under the 2021 budget, P951,312,523 was allocated for personnel services and P1,055,839,460 was set aside for maintenance and other operating expenses.
Special purpose lump sum appropriations got P1,227,357,193 while P1,151,594,721 is intended to the local economic enterprise or the expenses for 12 district hospitals and one provincial hospital.
The annual appropriations have three major socioeconomic features: continuous improvement of healthcare services; improvement of the local economy; and care for the psychosocial well-being of Ilonggos.
The budget pie is sliced into four major sectors: the economic sector has P499 million (15 percent); social sector, P500 million (16 percent); general public sector, P1 billion (31 percent); and special purpose appropriations, P1.230 billion (38 percent).
The proposed annual budget also contained the second tranche of salary standardization.
Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. assured the Ilonggos there is enough budget for infrastructure projects and healthcare services.
“We have a good amount of budget for infrastructure so we can substantially pave more provincial and barangay roads. And we will have significant improvement on the state of our hospitals,” Defensor said./PN
