We’ll give city dads’ pork barrel share to those who want it

CEBU, Philippines - After four Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan-allied members of the Cebu City Council indicated that they would not received their share of a proposed P36 million project aid included in the 2015 annual budget pending before the City Council, Mayor Michael Rama said their shares would be distributed to other “willing” councilors.

“We don’t compel them if they won’t receive the amount.  We will just find a way. Perhaps it may be given to other councilors who are open and willing to receive it,” he said.

He also dispelled the term “local pork barrel” that one of the four coined in naming the P2-million share from the proposed 36 million budget for the social and other development projects.

Rama said the amount only becomes a pork barrel if they intend to earn kickbacks from the budget.

“We are not making money out of it. ‘Local pork barrel’ is always carrying an orientation of making money out of it,” he said.

City Councilors Alvin Dizon, Margarita Osmeña, Lea Japson and Alvin Arcilla refused to have themselves included among the officials who would each get an allocation of P2 million from the P36 million Rama’s office proposed for barangay, social, and other development projects.

They likened the amount to the multi-billion-peso pork barrel scandal involving the use of senators’ and congressmen’s priority development assistance fund (PDAF), or what is commonly referred to as pork barrel.

Rama, however, said the P2 million share of each of the four city councilors would create more projects for the barangays, as his administration intends to decentralize the handling of projects.

He said his plan would also “empower” the barangay officials to implement projects and programs themselves.

“The more projects that goes to barangay the better it is for the city since we won’t be handling centrally the projects for barangays,” said Rama.

During the budget hearing yesterday, the City Council told the Local Finance Committee to propose more funds for the city’s Burial Assistance Program and the Senior Citizen’s Program.

The LFC is proposing P55 million for the burial assistance next year, which is higher than this year’s P32 million and the P29.7 million in 2013. For the senior citizens, the LFC proposed P720 million, the same budget set aside from this year.

City Hall’s executive branch has proposed a 2015 annual budget of P19.1 billion.

Ruben Baculi, head of the Cebu City Burial Assistance Office, said that although higher than this year’s allocation, the P55 million still would not suffice; he said that as of this month, there are already 3,278 applicants for burial assistance.

Of the P55 million, P45 million is for financial assistance and P10 million is for the purchase of coffin.

Baculi lamented that for 2013 to 2014, there is still P32 million in pending payments for financial assistance, which translates to 3,200 beneficiaries.

Once the P55 million is approved, Baculi said the amount would only be utilized to settle the pending payments for the last two years, and what would be left would surely be depleted in seven to eight months.

He said they receive an average of 20 requests a day for financial assistance, and five a day for coffins.

The council, on the other hand, noted that the budget allocation for senior citizens amounting to P720 million is not sufficient considering that there are the additional 6,000 pending applications.

Osmeña, who applied for assistance, said they were told by the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs that of the 6,000 “qualified” new applicants, only 3,000 could be accommodated due to budgetary constraints.—Kristine B. Quintas and USJ-R Masscom Intern Glenda Tapang/RHM (FREEMAN)