Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña (left) administers the oath of office to the newly elected SK Federation officers headed by President Jessica Resch (second from left) from Barangay San Nicolas Proper at the Parklane International Hotel on May 29, 2018. Resch is allied with Osmeña’s BOPK Party.| CDN file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Sangguniang Kabataan chairpersons in the 80 barangays of Cebu City are encouraged to tap the P1 million fund of the Cebu City government for SK projects of each barangay.
Jessica Resch, SK Federation president, made this call after the Cebu City Council approved on Tuesday, January 29, the appropriation of P1 million per barangay for SK projects that had been approved by their respective barangays.
Resch also encouraged SK chairpersons to comply with the requirements needed for the approval of the projects as soon as possible so that they could tap this amount.
She said that they would then be able to begin their projects which had been put on hold after the Commission on Audit (COA) suspended the release of the funds until guidelines for the appropriation would be created.
Resch said that the COA was working on creating the guidelines for the appropriation of the SK budget that would be sourced from 10 percent of the barangay’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).
This also resulted to the putting on hold the funds for the SK projects in Cebu City, a development that prompted the SK Federation president to seek help from the Cebu City government.
“Actually, we don’t lack SK Funds, they are just put on hold as of the moment while awaiting for the guidelines,” said Resch.
On the P1 million per barangay assistance, Resch said that the city government would require each SK Council to provide plans for their projects that had been coordinated with the barangay councils before they could request for the financial aid.
As of Tuesday, only seven barangays have been approved by the city government to avail of the P1 million aid. These barangays are T. Padilla, Talamban, Busay, Guadalupe, Kasambagan, Budlaan, and Sawang Calero.
Resch said that the financial assistance of other barangays including her own Barangay San Nicolas were disapproved by the Office the Mayor because they failed to comply with certain requirements for their projects, which were mostly infrastructure projects such as the construction of a youth center.
She said that the approval of the projects rely mostly on the details of the proposal and the close coordination and approval of the barangay council.
Aside from asking the SK chairpersons to comply with the requirements needed for the release of the P1 million financial assistance of the Cebu City government, she also made a call to the public for more patience in the implementation of their projects.
“We also ask the people to wait because we have the means now, and we can now do our projects thanks to the help of the Mayor (Tomas Osmeña),” she said.
She said that she was grateful to the Cebu City government for giving them a chance to jumpstart their projects with the financial assistance and to allow the SK to be more productive./dbs