21 City Hall department heads to get laptops

CEBU, Philippines - The P550,000 budget proposal for the purchase of laptops for department heads of Cebu City Hall was approved for appropriation in the P350-million Supplemental Budget 7.

However the request to increase the funding from P550,000 to P1 million in order to go for the more sophisticated Macbook was not approved.

Assistant city administrator Juvy Morelos yesterday said that the P550,000 is only enough to buy the notebook-type laptop for the 21 department heads which will range from P30,000 to P40,000.

Morelos who defended the budget said the department heads prefer the Macbook because of its sophistication and work reliability, especially for those who are no longer young.

According to William Artajo, head of the Management Information Computer System, who was asked to describe the Macbook said it cannot be infected by viruses and has a larger memory.

“Basically, the Macbook will serve more or less the demands of a department head,” Artajo said.

He said that an ordinary Macbook costs more or less than P75,000 while the Mac Air costs more than P120,000.

City administrator Francisco Fernandez said they will have to select who among the department heads will get a Macbook and those whose demands can be met with an ordinary laptop.

Also approved was the appropriation for the purchase of P1.5 million for hardware and software that will protect the information flow at City Hall.

Artajo said the items to be purchased serve as their first steps in information security with the aim of having an “online environment”.

The P350-million SB7 yesterday underwent a budget hearing headed by Committee on Budget and Finance head councilor Jose Daluz III.

The list of the budgetary items in SB 7 was finalized by Mayor Tomas Osmeña and was endorsed to the city council in this week’s recent session.

It includes P61.2 million for infrastructure projects for 23 barangays, mostly in the south district.

At least P34 million was set aside for vehicles and P80 million for asphalting of roads.

SB1 amounted to P50 million followed by SB2 with P100 million, SBC for P196 million, SB4 for P212 million, SB5 for P313.34 million and P200.4 million for SB6. — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)