SLASHED IN HALF: Of the P33 Million proposed budget, City Council only approves P17 Million for CCSC

Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella (left) and Councilor Jocelyn Pesquera (second from left) approach Councilors headed by Margot Osmeña (seated) to talk about deferring the budget approval for next week. (CDN Photo/Junjie Mendoza)

The Cebu City Sports Commission’s (CCSC) proposed budget for 2017 was slashed to almost half during the Cebu City Council’s special session at the Cebu City Hall last Thursday afternoon.

The CCSC presented to the council a budget of P33,656,712 for 2017 but the 14th Sangguniang Panlungsod approved an amount of just P17,106,712.

Last year, the sports commission had a total budget of P24,100,711, according to a CCSC official, who asked not to be named.

Of the budget, P4,270,711 was allotted for salaries and wages of CCSC workers. A total of P3 million was set aside for sports and materials, while P16M was intended for sports development program. An amount of P780,000 was set aside for other sports and materials expenses.

Dismayed

Councilor Eugenio “Jun” Gabuya, deputy mayor for sports, said he was worried on how this could affect sports development in the city.

“I am dismayed,” Gabuya said. “This will have a big effect in the sports community, especially for the athletes in our grassroots program.”

A budget of P1 million was allotted for the grassroots development program alone but the recent development might force the CCSC to lessen this.

Gabuya, though, is planning to contest the city council’s decision in next Tuesday’s regular session. He said the approved amount has yet to be finalized due to some irregularities with councilor Jocelyn “Joy” Pesquera’s committee report on budget.

Also expected to be affected if this budget is officially approved is the allocation for travel expenses, sports supplies and materials.

“Our athletes competing in the Batang Pinoy will also be greatly affected by this,” Gabuya added. The athletes and coaches sent to regional and national multi-sporting meets like the Batang Pinoy and Philippine National Games were supposed to be allotted P5,550,000.

The impending cut on the budget, will also take a toll on the services that requires sports materials such as supplies for olympic sports, archery, arnis, basketball, baseball/softball, badminton, chess, dancesport, football/futsal, karatedo, muay thai, lawn tennis, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, boxing, and pencak silat.

When asked what adjustments are they going to do to utilize the new P17 million budget, Gabuya said he has yet to plan this since he is focusing on still convincing the members of the Cebu City Council to change their minds.