The Cebu City Council announced on Saturday that it slashed the proposed 2024 annual budget from P100 billion to P20 billion.

The annual budget ordinance — authored by City Councilors Noel Wenceslao and Jocelyn Pesquera — stated that the total budget will be P19.998 billion appropriated for the general fund proper, which consists of personal services, maintenance and other operating expenses and capital outlay while P2.055 billion for special accounts.

Originally, Mayor Michael Rama proposed P100 billion for 2024 and the Office of the Mayor asked for P500 million but was amended to P400 million.

The allocation includes expenditures for various activities such as Charter Day with P15 million; Christmas with P15 million; Teacher's Day Celebration with P10 million; Sinulog with P70 million; other activities with P90 million and Palarong Pambansa with P200 million.

For special bodies, projects and programs and other operating expenses, the Senior Citizen Affairs Office was allocated with P4 million; the Cebu City Wildlife Rescue Conservation Protection Facility with P10 million; South Road Properties Management with P10 million; and Barangay Affairs Office with P42.6 million.

Pesquera cited Section 5 of the ordinance, which said appointments to replace defunded positions in the regular workforce will be funded by adding money from the lump-sum appropriations for salaries and wages, which follows the policy guidelines of the local chief executive or the presiding officer of the Cebu City Council, in line with Section 336 of Republic Act 7160, or the Local Government Code of 1991.

She added that Section 6 of the ordinance allows the local chief executive or the Sanggunian's presiding officer to increase any item in their approved annual budget using savings from similar expense categories within their budget.

However, any increase from lump-sum appropriations or capital outlay accounts, such as motor vehicles and information and communications technology equipment, needs approval from the City Council.

Wenceslao, on the other hand, said the sources for general funds include tax revenue with P77.5 billion; non-tax revenue with P10,553,965,069; National Tax Allotment with P2,904,572,882; share from government-owned and controlled corporations such as Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office with P288 million; share from economic zones with P600 million and other sources such as profits from joint ventures with P7 billion.

Other fund sources for special accounts include city hospitals Cebu City Medical Center, Guba and Bonbon through non- tax revenue with P1.021 billion and subsidy from the general fund proper with P164,212,645; Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor through non-tax revenue with P20 million and subsidy from the general fund proper with P159,272,468; city markets, through non-tax revenue with P150 million; and the Local Development Fund, a subsidy from the general fund proper with P580,914,576.40.