• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Mayor Greg Gasataya said yesterday that next year’s proposed budget of the Bacolod City government is around P4.75 billion.
This is about P350 million higher than this year’s budget of P4.4 billion, with the conservative increase mainly due to the expected rise in the National Tax Allotment (NTA, formerly Internal Revenue Allotment) share of the city from the national government.
This year’s NTA share of Bacolod reached P2,244,573,982.
Gasataya said the P350 million increase would mainly be for the city’s scholars, the continuation of the Bacolod City Comprehensive Health Program (BacCHP), assistance to vulnerable sectors, as well as the mandatory expenses of the city.
“The increase is very minimal, we mainly based it on the NTA share since there’s an annual increase gid man…as to local sources, still the same since we did not increase our taxes,” he explained.
He said the executive branch is still finalizing the proposed Local Expenditure Program (LEP) for 2026, and the submission to the Sangguniang Panlungsod could be this Friday or next week.
This will be the second year that Bacolod’s LEP breached the billion-peso mark.
In 2024, the city’s annual appropriation was at P3.6 billion, and P3.250 billion, both in 2023 and 2022.
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, meanwhile, said he will also submit the proposed 2026 budget of the provincial government to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan next week, with focus on the health sector.
“We’re really working on getting the tertiary level (accreditation) for the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay, and level 2 for the Cadiz District Hospital. We’re encouraging our hospital (leaders) to really work hard” for the accreditation, he added.
The governor said he will also talk to the Capitol’s medical scholars that when they graduate and pass the Board, they should do their residency in TLJPH because that’s one of the requirements for a Level III certification. | CGC
