Various regional government agencies in the Negros Island Region (NIR) or Region 18 have submitted their respective budgets for 2017 during the 2nd Regional Development Council (RDC) meeting held in Dumaguete City Friday.
Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon were present in that meeting, attended by the different regional directors or representatives of all the regional government offices in the NIR.
One of the regional offices in Region 18 that has a proposed budget for next year of over P1.524 billion is the Department of Agriculture, distributed as follows: P478m for maintenance and other operation expenses, P967,300.00 for capital outlay.
Specific programs included a proposed budget of P149 million for rice program, P69.4 million for corn, P46.6 million for high value crops development program, P56.66 million for national livestocks program, P177 million for organic agriculture program, P302 million for farm to market roads, P470 million for general administration and support services, P214.8 million for support operations and P34 million for plant and animal regulations or a total of P1.524 million.
Plans are also afoot for the construction of a regional center for agriculture which includes offices and various laboratories and skills development center as well as the establishment of an agricultural training institute in the region.
According to RDC chair Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon and Gov. Roel Degamo of Negros Oriental, agriculture has one of the biggest budgets because the island region has now a bigger and larger area compared to the new Region 6 and the new Region 7.
On the other hand, the proposed budget for the regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is also doubled with the end in view of making the island a biodiversity region.
DENR Region 18 director Al Orolfo has presented an P815.4 million proposed budget for the agency, part of the budget of which will be used in the creation of an office, purchase of vehicles, and other equipment so the office.
He said personnel services may be increased due to plans of creating a bigger office and that bigger budget is required because Negros Island Region has a bigger forest land with two natural parks, namely, the Kanlaon Natural Park and Lake Balinsasayao.
Orolfo stressed the need for more investments in terms of environmental and natural management in the island, firstly because NIR is bigger than when the Negros provinces used to be with Regions 6 and 7.
NIR has a total land area of 13,551 square kilometers compared to the other two regions.
The DENR regional director has informed the full council meeting of the RDC that a detailed proposal of its budget had been approved by DENR Sec. Ramon Paje including the proposed plantilla for DENR —NIR, subject to the approval of DBM.
For the regional office, DENR is proposing 242 plantilla positions and even recommended for the restoration of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Sipalay, Negros Occidental because of the large area of environment that has to be managed properly in the new region.
The MOOE was increased by 81 percent due to increase in targets in the preparation of climate resilient plans to include the coastal resource management framework and the establishment of a lands desk in the NIR.
Under the program, all the alienable and disposal lands will be computerized for easy access to land status and land titles by clicking on the kiosk in the regional office.
The regional DENR proposed budget also includes expansion of the national greening program and the implementation of the construction of office building for the NIR, worth P50 million to be established in Kabankalan.
For the Department of Public Works and Highways, the budget for Negros Oriental is pegged at P9 billion more or less while Negros Occidental has a proposed budget of P11 billion more or less. The two governors said this is in compliance with what was agreed during exploratory talks that there will be fair distribution of resources for both province.
Negros Occidental has a higher allocation than Negros Oriental because it also has a bigger land read and bigger population.
The proposed budgets will be forwarded to the Department of Budget and Management for approval following the RDC endorsement. (JFP)
