New guidelines sought on SK fund

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council has requested the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to issue a new set of guidelines on the disbursement of the Sangguniang Kabataan fund.

The new guidelines are necessary to be able to utilize the 10 percent from the general fund of the barangay allocated for SK to organize development programs for the youth.

The fund will be used to compensate various social, cultural and sports activities of youth in 80 barangays of Cebu City.

"The absence of SK brings about the need for a set of guidelines on the disbursement of the fund allocation for youth development programs as mandated by Sec. 4 of RA. 10632," Councilor Alvin Arcilla said. 

Sec. 4 of RA 10632 provides that; the fund will be utilized only "until the new set of officials have been duly elected and qualified, the Sangguniang Barangay shall use the Sangguniang Kabataan fund solely for youth development programs."

The SK elections was postponed last year and that the Commission on Elections is yet to determine if  there will still be elections between October 28, 2014 and February 23, 2015 as  provided for under Republic Act (RA) No. 10632.

Arcilla explained that the SK budget is now considered a "frozen fund" considering that a resolution from SK is necessary to access it.

"It's frozen (fund), we could not touch it. Thereby we need to secure SK resolution to be able to use the fund," Arcilla said.

But, Councilor Margarita Osmeña, council majority floor leader, questioned the necessity of the SK resolution. "Do we really need the resolution (SK) just to access those funds?" she asked.

In response, Arcilla nodded saying that acquiring the said measure is based on the old guidelines of  DBM.

Councilor Mary Ann Delos Santos argued that seeking guidelines might give repercussion as to the use of fund.

"Why touch something that is not broken? For as long as there is no violation we could still use the fund," she said.

Councilor Gerardo Carillo agreed saying "still we can utilize it (fund) for development (programs) because these are funds of the city," he said.

Meanwhile, Councilor Eugenio Gabuya has requested the newly elected president of  the Association of Barangay Councils, Philip Zafra, to provide the council a copy of the sports development program in all barangays in Cebu. — (FREEMAN)