Garcia apologizes to winners for delayed prizes

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia has apologized for the delay in awarding the cash prizes of the two events his office has supported, while also explaining the tedious process in releasing public funds.

“First of all, I’d just like to apologize for the delay in the cash prizes. It’s not easy organizing events such as this, and it’s also not easy working on the release of prizes,” Garcia said.

Aside from the prizes, the release of honorariums is also taking some time to be processed, he added.

The winners of the Sinegugma Film Festival and the Animal Welfare Summit Photo Contest had already received their prizes using Garcia’s own money, while the amount for the prizes is still being processed by the City Budget Office.

Around P250,000 had been released for the cash prizes of the two events.

The winners of another event that the VMO had supported, the Heritage Painting Contest, however, still have to wait for a little while, as documents are still being reviewed concerning the competition.

Garcia has assured the winners though that he will follow up on the prizes of these other contests.

“That’s really government bureaucracy. Kahibaw bitaw mo nga hasta among mga job order (employees), usahay dugay sad mahatag (ang ilang mga honorarium),” Garcia added while saying that the bigger the LGU, the harder the process gets, as far as funding projects and securing prizes for it.

The issue concerning event prizes under the city government cropped up after the prizes of the just-concluded Baranggayan sa Sugbo had yet to be finalized and released.

Event host, film director, and writer Sam Costanilla, in an earlier Facebook post, said that even the winners of the Sinegugma have not yet received their prizes.

It then led to other contest winners, including the Animal Welfare Summit photo contest, to also try their luck in chasing the city for the release of their cash prizes.

While Costanilla thanked the vice mayor for his efforts, he continued to criticize the slow processing system of the prizes for those competitions sanctioned by the City Hall.

“Bulay-og ug pulpol ang naghikay sa cash prizes. They should be replaced. Ug usbon sab ang processing system," said Costanilla. – Sanden J. Anadia, GAN (FREEMAN)