Archival: Cebu City score gains in 2025 despite limited funds

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STRONGER collaboration and cost-efficient approaches allowed the city to deliver services and implement projects despite limited funds.

Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival on Wednesday, Jan.7, cited this as his administration’s early gains in governance.

Speaking during the presentation of his 2025 Yearend Report and 2026 Execution Agenda, Archival said the city focused on maximizing partnerships, rationalizing resources, and avoiding unnecessary spending.

“So far, I would say it is very successful in the sense that, although we don’t have a lot of budget, we were able to accomplish some projects,” Archival said.

He cited improvements in basic services, particularly garbage collection, where the city maintained the same level of service while cutting fuel consumption.

“Instead of giving barangays 500 liters, we negotiated it down to 300 liters. The garbage collected remained the same. We were just trying to find ways to be more efficient,” he said.

In health services, Archival said the city relied heavily on partnerships with institutions to stretch limited resources.

“Dili man ta ing-ana kadaghan ug kwarta, but we were able to connect to institutions. We had more than 100 patients and only spent about P5,000,” he said, adding that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) also extended assistance, expanding support from health services to legal aid.

The mayor also reported progress in the city’s environmental targets, saying more than 94,000 trees had been planted so far, roughly 35 percent of the administration’s target.

“For me, we can achieve the rest of the number of trees in two years,” Archival said. “Ang point lang gyud nato is collaboration is very important, ug dili kaayo ta mugasto.”

Archival said these gains align with his administration’s 10-point agenda, which covers key sectors such as health, food security and agriculture, education, business and livelihood development, climate resilience and infrastructure, housing, traffic mitigation, and public safety and social services.

Other programs also target disaster preparedness and assistance for senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), solo parents, drivers, vendors, youth, LGBTQ+ members, animal welfare advocates, and other marginalized sectors.

The mayor reiterated that fiscal discipline remains a cornerstone of his leadership, consistent with earlier reports showing the city had reduced its projected budget deficit by P832 million within his first three months in office through cost-cutting and spending reforms.

Archival acknowledged that limited funding and bureaucratic processes remain major challenges, particularly for time-sensitive projects such as flood mitigation.

“The hardest part is the process,” he said. “You cannot just release funds right away. You have to go through declarations, programs, and bidding, which can take more than a month.”

To address this, he said the administration is now preparing projects ahead of time for 2026 to avoid delays and reduce reliance on supplemental budgets.

Despite the challenges, Archival said he remains confident in the city’s direction.

“We can call it a roadmap. All departments understand our direction,” he said. “With that in mind, mas sayon na karon ang pagdumala because naa naman silay klarong aim.”

He added that while the workload has been exhausting, clearer systems and alignment among departments are expected to stabilize governance and spending moving forward.(TGP)