Cosap Executive Director Garry Lao meets with the Cebu City barangay tanods . | CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (Cosap), which handles the distribution of the honoraria for the barangay tanods, said the tanods would continue to work despite the suspension of the release of their honoraria.
According to COSAP Head, Garry Lao, the temporary suspension of the honoraria will not hamper the services of the tanods in any of the barangays.
“Anyway, the honorarium is a privilege. It is an assistance. It’s temporary suspension will not affect the tanods’ services,” assured Lao.
Lao said that there had been concerns and queries among the tanods because of the suspension, but Lao assured them that the city was seeking for an exemption from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Aside from the barangay tanods’ honoraria, the financial assistance for senior citizens and barangay workers from several government projects in the Cebu City were also put on hold until the city government could get an exemption from the Comelec from its ban on disbursements for the duration of the election period.
“Worse comes to worse, the honoraria will be released after the election period. We will just have to wait for the city to get an exemption,” said Lao.
Lao said he understood the concerns of some tanods as the honorarium of P4,000 was a big help to these tanods, but he encouraged them to continue working even without it.
“This should not hamper our services,” he said.
In previous statements, the City Legal Office already said that they expect the exemption to be approved quickly since because the projects involved were merely continuing projects.
The city will comply with the election ban while waiting for the approval of the Comelec. /dbs