Garcia blames VM

Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia has welcomed the Department of Budget and Management's (DBM) move to address inconsistencies in the city's P14.6-billion 2025 annual budget-but questioned the rushed approval made by Vice Mayor Donaldo Hontiveros, who was the acting mayor, which he said may have compromised a thorough review.

- Iris Hazel Mascardo

In an interview yesterday, April 24, 2025, Garcia said it had already come to his attention that DBM-7 had reviewed the approved P14.6-billion 2025 annual budget, flagging and declaring some items inoperative.

As indicated in the review, the DBM acknowledged compliance with the laws cited in the budget ordinances. However, they identified appropriations totaling P79,705,000 that would be deemed inoperative. These were found to be inconsistent with the corresponding Annual Investment Plan (AIP) of the city government.

“That is something that I will have to look into and I will remedy, myself, kay the backstops with the mayor but of course you have to know, and we have to realize that the budget for 2025 was signed by the Acting Mayor,” said Garcia.

It may be recalled that during the last weeks of December 2024, Garcia went on leave, placing Hontiveros in the role of acting mayor, including during the approval of the annual budget.

Garcia had earlier questioned this, seeking clarity on whether there was proper transmission of the trimmed annual budget ordinance—especially since Hontiveros signed it on a non-working day.

Garcia further recalled that since the budget ordinance was submitted to Hontiveros, it raised concerns about whether the latter had enough time to review and discuss it “thoroughly.”

“Wa nila matan-aw, nya iya nalang gipirma on a Saturday,” he said.