As palaro, City Hall employees' bonus receive funding: Budget for police building realigned

CEBU, Philippines — Following the approval of the Supplemental Budget (SB) by the Cebu City Council, which includes funding for the Palarong Pambansa hosting and the Charter Day bonus of City Hall employees, a realignment of funds for some projects will have to be done.

Councilor Noel Wenceslao, who chairs the Committee on Budget and Finance, disclosed that among those realigned as source of the P963 million SB1 is the budget for development of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).

Wenceslao, however, said the supposed construction of the CCPO is just part of the other projects that were realigned under the Local Development Fund (LDF) that were not implemented.

“Karaan na nya di naman na pwede nga magamit nato kay mausab naman ang program of works,” said Wenceslao.

Last month, the Local Finance Committee disclosed that it had listed projects under the LDF from the years 2014-2017 that remained “unimplemented and were considered already stale or outdated.”

Wenceslao also clarified that the realignment of the funds does not mean that the project will not be implemented, but rather just needs a new budget proposal that will correspond to an updated amount.

“Mga karaan man gud na nga unimplemented kay ang CCPO wa man na ma implement sa una nya apil sa LDF so dili na gyud na ma implement kay nausab naman ang amount,” said Wenceslao.

Wenceslao also said that the CCPO project was established way back in 2015-2016 and prices of materials may vary with higher costs due to inflation.

He explained that although the budget appropriation may be closed and is being realigned for the SB1, the project development still stands.

“Usually ang ana nila mag usab na sila og propose budget appropriation with a different amount,” said Wenceslao.

He explained that should the same budget appropriation be implemented, there will be a possibility of budget deficits in the project.

According to Wenceslao, it is not only the CCPO development budget that was realigned but also projects of the barangay whose budget utilization didn’t reach the approved ones.

The approval of SB1 was conducted last Friday, March 8, 2024, during an online special session.

The SB1, apart from the Charter Day bonus of City Hall workers, is also composed of the P205 million budget for the hosting of Palarong Pambansa 2024, and the P600 million for transitional housing for the informal settlers who will be displaced in line with the efforts of Task Force Gubat sa Baha.

The Freeman tried to get the comment of the CCPO on the budget realignment, but the organization still had no comment as of press time.

The project includes an allocation of P50 million for the construction of the CCPO building, but the development of the project was later delayed after ownership requirements of the police camp still needed to be settled with the Provincial Government.

Meanwhile, the P3.1 billion LDF is now ready for utilization to achieve the city’s vision of becoming a “super-city.”

“The local development fund will be efficiently utilized to achieve the collective aspiration of the people,” said Mayor Mike Rama in yesterday’s flag raising ceremony.

The funds are expected to be utilized for projects in the barangays in its quest to becoming city-like.

“We will endeavor to make the 80 barangays city-like barangays. And when they become city-like, the whole city becomes super-city,” Mayor Rama added.

Along with this, each of the departments and attached offices under the city government will “adopt-a-barangay” to assist them in the realization of their projects.

The City Planning and Development Office (CPDO), the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW), Local Finance Committee (LFC), and City Administrator Atty. Collin Rosell was told “to facilitate immediately the utilization and program of the local development fund in line with the platform of governance, policy direction and of the administration.” — (FREEMAN)