City Council committee tackles SB 1, suggests city pay SRP loan in full instead

THE proposed Supplemental Budget 1 (SB1) asking for an additional P13 million for the SRP loan payment which will be due this August 20 will likely be approved during this Tuesday’s City Council’s regular session.

Councilor Joy Pesquera, head of the City Council’s committee on budget and finance, said this during yesterday’s City Council’s special session tackling the proposed SB 1 even as members of the committee suggested that the Cebu city government pay the SRP loan in full instead.
Councilor Raymond Garcia, a member of the committee, said the city could save at least P500 million if the city government would pay in full today the SRP loan with interests.

“Ako lang iklaro sige man gud balik balik ang issue that the city is bankrupt. When in fact our very own City Accountant and City Budget Officer have already signified that we have a P10.4 billion,” Garcia said.

He was referring to acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo, who said that the city government had P10.4 billion cash in the bank and City Budget officer Marrieta Gumia, who said that the city would only need P3.2 billion plus interests to pay in full the SRP loan.

The two city officials were present during yesterday’s special session which was attended mostly by Team Rama councilors.

Gumia told the committee yesterday that the P13 million SB1 was needed to cover the ‘miscalculation’ in the city’s loan repayment allocation caused by constantly changing foreign exchange rates.

But Councilor Joey Daluz III said that it was not a miscalculation but just a fluctuation in currency, which was the reason the city needed the additional allocation.

The SB 1 will be tackled on Tuesday’s regular session where the committee on budget and finance would submit its report to the Council as well as the executive department.