MANILA, Philippines — Palawan Governor Abraham Mitra showed off Tuesday nearly P200 million in savings kept in Capitol coffers by the end of December 2010, saying frugal spending still allowed him to fund vital projects in the province.

“We have always endeavored to maintain a balanced budget, for as I declared in my inaugural address, we should and always employ wise use of government resources,” said Mitra in his State of the Province Address (SOPA).

He highlighted that revenue generation exceeded by P50 million, remitting on time the province’s GSIS, Pag-ibig and Philhealth contributions.

He also revealed that his flagship program, HEAT (Health, Education, Agriculture and Tourism) has also exceeded its expectations.

For the health sector, Mitra said that the provincial government allocated P20 million for the expansion of the Philhealth program.

Currently, the province has already enrolled 28,000 beneficiaries. He is confident that before the end of the year, the program would have surpassed its 40,000 target beneficiaries.

Mitra also reported that in the education sector, the number of scholars covered by the scholarship program has reached 4,000 from the previous 2,200 scholars. He also emphasized that the shortage of classroom teachers has already been addressed with the deployment of 389 teacher aides assigned to remote public schools in the province.

He also stated that the provincial government has distributed 33,000 school bags and other school supplies to Grade 1 students of public schools.