George blames previous admin

CEBU, Philippines - Basak San Nicolas Captain George Rama blames the previous administration for not putting enough budget for the Burial Assistance Program which he said caused the delay in the payment to funeral parlors.

Basak San Nicolas is one of the three cluster barangays in the south district that still owe several funeral parlors over P2 million for the burial services that the different mortuaries in the city rendered to the deceased city constituents.

Some P3 million worth of financial assistance also remain unreleased to the claimants.

The city’s burial assistance program has two components, the burial service and the financial assistance. The burial service includes the embalming and coffin while the financial assistance is a one-time P10,000 cash assistance.

Rama said that the P2 million worth of burial services and P3 million worth of cash assistance to claimants are payables since 2009 to 2010 that they failed to pay because the program ran out of budget then.

Good thing, he said, funds are available now under the Supplemental Budget No. 2 so he assured the mortuaries that they will be paid once the payment is processed.

Veronica Monleon, a barangay staff in charge for the burial assistance said she is preparing all the necessary documents required by the city and is set to submit it next week.

The P2 million debt to the funeral parlors already include the over P984,000 being demanded by St. Francis Memorial Homes whose representatives just recently wrote the city council anew to ask assistance for the speedy release of the payment of over P1.56 million that the three cluster barangays owe them.

St. Francis Memorial Homes Vice President for Operations Atty. Zigfred Diaz said Basak San Nicolas owes them P984,000 while barangays Guadalupe and Bulacao owe them P224,000 and P360,000 respectively.

The burial assistance program is now under the Mayor’s Office after barangays preferred to turn it over back to the city because they cannot cope with the paper works.

When the office of the mayor took over in the implementation, it changed the rules with the burial assistance now being bid out and awarded to one winning funeral parlor. (FREEMAN)