DAVAO CITY – Three major infrastructure projects of the city government of Davao will no longer push through within the second term of Mayor Sara Duterte, which ends on 2022.
In her pre-recorded State of the City Address (SOCA) streamed live on Facebook on Monday, Duterte said the expansion of the City Hall Building, City College of Davao, and Davao City Hospital have been pushed back beyond her term.
She said no definite date has been set to the implement of the expansion plan for the decades-old City Hall building, which has the least priority among the three projects.
She added the City College of Davao, which was originally slated for opening last August, has been postponed until June 2023, although the feasibility study for the project is already being completed.
“Hopefully, by that time, the situation will already allow face-to-face classes,” she said.
The Davao City Hospital, which will be implemented in partnership with the University of the Philippines-Mindanao, will take shape in 2024, according to Duterte.
“Right now, the documentary requirements for this hospital are being accomplished,” she said.
The mayor said the projects have to be set aside for “various reasons.”
For one, the mayor said the city government would have a lower 2021 annual budget in the amount of P9.871 billion, a reduction by P466 million compared with P10.337 budget of the current year due to the economic impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
“The difference is attributed to the decrease of income from local sources because of the severe economic impact of COVID-19,” she said.
The effect of a lower budget allocation will be “reduction on the number of projects under the development fund.”
“On the bright side, we are still on track for our goal of Debt Free Davao 2022,” she said