Dizon: We're not Rama scapegoat

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon is asking Mayor Michael Rama to stop his "blame game with the City Council" starting this year.

"I hope for the mayor to stop his blame game with the City Council. We should not be used as a scapegoat for his shortcomings in the management of  the City, because we only work within our mandates and the Cebuanos can always hold us accountable," Dizon said in a text message to The FREEMAN.

For instance, the mayor recently said the City Council was not helping the City Government for slashing his P256-million Supplemental Budget (SB)-2 to less than half at P124 million, and the P10.5-billion 2014 Annual Budget to just P5.8 billion, among others.

Also, Dizon said the revamp of  City Hall department heads that Rama implemented last Jan. 2 might be a good start this year for Rama's administration.

"I just hope that the revamp will translate into better governance concretely improving fiscal management and increasing transparency and accountability," Dizon said.

Both Rama and newly appointed City Administrator Eugene Elizalde could not be reached for their comments as of press time.

Meanwhile, although the City Government promised before 2013 ended the release of cash assistance for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and senior citizens first week of  this month, this has not materialized.

Cuevas told The FREEMAN that the documents for the release of the cash assistance are still at the accounting office as of Friday last week.

"I am just waiting for the payroll," she said.

Over 60,000 senior citizens and 11,000 PWDs are yet to receive P2,000 each as last tranche of  cash assistance the city promised for 2013. For the elderly, they are supposed to get an annual cash assistance of  P10,000, while the PWDs get P5,000 each.

Cuevas said there is no date yet for the release of the senior citizen's cash assistance and of the honoraria for 362 Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) amounting to P8.7 million.

The City Council has already authorized Cuevas to charge the P8.7 million to miscellaneous services for the Cebu City Environmental and Sanitation Enforcement (Account No. 1011-1-200-969-115) under SB-2

Cuevas, though, said that the City Accounting Office still has to obligate the amount since liquidation of the previous release is not yet done. — (FREEMAN)