Cebu City Acting Treasurer Jerone Castillo | Delta Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines–Cebu City Acting Treasurer Jerone Castillo is one step closer to becoming the official City Treasurer.
This was the pronouncement of Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, who is keen to have Castillo certified to be the city’s official treasurer for faster transactions for the city’s funds.
Castillo recently informed the mayor that he passed the Local Treasury Eligibility examinations and has been accorded the Local Treasury Seal by the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) of the Department of Finance.
This is just among the requirements for a Treasurer candidate of a local government unit (LGU) to take before becoming the City Treasurer.
The Seal is a three-level certification program to professionalize and provide capacity development for local treasurers through the BLGF that focuses on tactical-operational competencies (Level 1), strategic-managerial competencies (Level 2), and leading-for-innovation competencies (Level 3) to instill a culture of excellence, integrity, and proficiency for modern local treasury service.
The program started on November 28, 2017, and has since been the requirement for new LGU treasurers.
“Jerone Castillo is a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) lawyer, but he needed to pass that examination to be qualified as a city treasurer,” said Labella.
Castillo is now waiting for the appointment of the BLGF to be officially named as the City Treasurer.
As of now, Castillo is acting as the city treasurer, but he cannot yet sign documents with authorization such as the annual budgets, supplementary budgets, and others.
Arlene Rentuza, the current city treasurer, appointed by the BILG during the administration of previous mayor, Tomas Osmeña, still signs official documents for the city.
Rentuza recently signed the 2020 proposed annual budget of Labella with reservations and told the City Council that she signed with reservation because the funds was taken from the 2015 sale of a 45-hectare lot in the South Road Properties which is disputed to be legal. /bmjo