MAYOR BENG Climaco renewed her appeals to the City Council to approve the Executive Budget 2021 amounting to P4.3 billion.
In endorsing the budget, Climaco said the funds is a unique
configuration of fiscal plans which assimilate all the previously identified
needs of the city and the new challenges brought about by the Covid-19
pandemic.
“As we struggle to embark on the Covid-19 new normal, we acknowledge
that government services and the overall welfare of the people should be our
primary concern, hence the social services sector comprises a majority of our
fiscal plan at P2.4 billion or 56% of the entire budget,” Climaco said.
The society’s patriarchs and matriarchs, who are in need of these
social protection programs, now more than ever, as well as the persons with
disabilities (PWDs) and other vulnerable sectors will get P26 million appropriation
for the Birthday Benefits of the seniors; P1 million for the octogenarians,
nonagenarians and centenarians; and P5 million for PWDs.
Climaco said other social programs that were integrated in the
budget are the P187 million for Largo Vida Program, which is expanded to cover
not only the distribution of medicines to the senior citizens but also
distribution of vitamins and supplements to the senior citizens and other
vulnerable members of the communities; P65 million for Ayuda La Vida Program to
provide community livelihood programs to various sectors including the night
market and “ukay-ukay” stall holders.
And P50 million for the “Cuida Vida” Program or Soup Kitchen
Program, which is a mobile feeding initiative to sustain the daily meals of the
marginalized and most affected families of the Covid-19 pandemic; P50 million
for “Salva Vida” Program, intended to provide food packs and family hygiene
kits to low-income families in disadvantaged rural and urban communities; P15
million for the outreach services to 98 barangays; and P100 million for
socialized housing programs.
She said the health sector, on the other hand, will get the needed
funding to ensure surge capacity management of the city’s health personnel and
health facilities, hence, the amount of P112 million was allotted for contact
tracing programs; P14.7 million additional aid to all barangays for the
Covid-19 related activities of their Barangay Health Emergency Response Team;
P358 million for drugs and medicines, which includes P200 million for the
procurement of Covid-19 vaccines; P42 million for the “Medicare Para Sa Masa”
to increase PhilHealth coverage and number of sponsored members from 8,900
beneficiaries to 11,823; and P100 million for construction/rehab of hospitals
and health centers; P110 million for construction of multi-purpose buildings,
and P11 million for the construction of emergency quarantine facilities.
Likewise, next year’s budget includes appropriation for the monthly
allowance of 7,812 public school heads and teachers, and 1,878 PNP, BJMP and
BFP personnel.
Moreover, Climaco said the local government will increase next year
the honoraria of 460 barangay health workers, 90 barangay nutrition scholars,
350 day-care workers and 980 barangay tanod from P 2,000 to P 3,000 per month.
For the economic aspect, the budget includes the P12 million funding
as utility subsidy for 6,000 registered micro, small and medium enterprises;
P50 million for “Siembra Vida” Program to provide training, livelihood and
caravan projects and activities of the agri-fishery sector; and a total of P906
million as the city’s investments in infrastructure and developmental projects.
“As evident in our plans and programs, the
beneficiaries of this budget are not limited to a privileged few. This budget,
by all intents and purposes, is the budget for all the compoblanos of this city
because as the mother of this city, I will always be driven by my instinct to
protect and nurture my children from the economic turmoil and ill effects of
this pandemic,” Climaco said, stressing that the 2021 budget encompasses all of
the city’s social and health-related needs during this crisis.
“It aims to feed the hungry and heal the sick,
hence let us listen to the needs of our people and find it in our hearts to see
that this is more than a fiscal plan– it is our roadmap to health and economic
recovery from the global challenge—that is Covid-19,” she added. (Zamboanga
Post)
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