MANKAYAN, Benguet– The municipal government will be operating on a budget of P160.3 million next year to ensure the sustainable implementation of innovative development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services to the people in the different barangays.
However, Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong claimed that despite that increase of the income of the local government, he admitted that the municipality cannot still provide full benefits for the personnel concerned at the moment because of the prescribed budgetary requirements provided for by the Local Government code which must be first complied.
He disclosed that the said requirement is the fulfillment of the 45 percent salary limitation which the local government had slightly exceeded.
The local chief executive explained that what the local government could provide at the moment is 85 percent of the 4th tranches of the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) and the granting of step increments to all deserving municipal officials and employees as provided for the budget department based on length of service.
“Since we are in this situation, we can provide full benefits for our personnel and ultimately elevate the class of our municipality with the creation of new sources of income and revision of some of our municipal revenue code provisions. Our task now is to see to it that the aforementioned peoples money will be actually and exclusively used for public purpose for the development of our municipality,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
One of the primary thrusts of the administration of Mayor Ayong is for the establishment of income-generating projects of the municipality maximizing its potentials as an agriculture and ecotourism area through the put up of demonstration farms for the improved production of farmers and the establishment of a local government-owned hotel and convention center that will entice government and the private sector from other areas to hold their gatherings in the locality and contribute to the increase in economic activities and sources of livelihood of the people.
According to him, another project that the local government is trying to venture on is the development of its market facilities both in Poblacion and nearby Abatan to help in increasing the income that will be generated from the established income-generating assets of the municipality to serve as an added boost to the current income being generated by the local government which could be plowed back to the people through the implementation of development projects and improvement of the delivery of basic services, especially in remote communities of the town.
Mankayan is one of the five first-class municipalities and one of the three towns that derive most of their income from the existing operation of large-scale mining companies that are about to end their respective mine life, thus, the need for the said local governments to look for other alternative sources of income that will be used to cover the income that will be lost once the said mining companies will close their operations.
Ayong expressed confidence that with the support of the incumbent officials and the people of the municipality, Mankayan will level up in terms of development and will surely move up the ladder of success in due time.
By HENT
