30 towns to receive P2 million funds from Capitol for infrastructure

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia (10th from left) poses for a photo with the 30 mayors present during the League of Municipalities Cebu Chapter yearend executive session and Christmas party on Saturday, December 14. Garcia announced that the mayors who are present during the event will receive P2 million worth of projects from the Capitol. | Photo courtesy of Gov. Gwen Garcia Facebook page

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Capitol will be giving out P2 million worth of projects, preferably for infrastructure, to the 30 out of 44 component municipalities of the province.

The 30 towns are those whose mayors attended the year-end executive session and Christmas party of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Cebu Chapter in a hotel in Cebu City on Saturday evening, December 14, 2019.

In a picture posted on the Facebook page of the Cebu Provincial government, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia posed with the 30 mayors including her daughter, Liloan Mayor Christina Frasco, who is the provincial president of the LMP and national vice president for the Visayas; the governor’s brother, Barili mayor Marlon Garcia, the vice president for internal affairs; San Fernando Mayor Lakambini Reluya, the league secretary; and Daanbantayan Mayor Sun Shimura, treasurer.

“During her speech sa among Christmas party, she said nga those mayors who are present will receive P2 million worth of projects. Kami lang ang mo-request through a resolution and then the province ang mo-implement inig 2020,” Shimura told CDN Digital on Sunday, December 15.

(During her speech on our Christmas party, she said that those mayors who were present would receive P2 million worth of projects. We will be the one to request for the project through a resolution then the provincial government will implement it by 2020.)

Shimura said the town mayors were now identifying the projects that they might submit to the Capitol for funding.

According to Shimura, Garcia reiterated in her message to the mayors her direction to focus on hard or infrastructure projects in the Capitol’s assistance to the towns and barangays.

“Dili siya gusto nga mangayo mi og tents, monobloc chairs and the like. Infra gyud ang iyang gusto ron which is mao man gyuy nabyaan ron sa province: roads, barangay halls, barangay health stations,” Shimura said.

(She doesn’t want us to ask for tents, monobloc chairs and the like. She wants to focus on infrastructure projects like roads, barangay halls and health stations because that is where the province is quite left behind right now.)

Read more: Gwen to set guidelines to define what ‘help’  barangays can get from Capitol

Last Tuesday, December 10, Garcia laid down the guidelines for the projects that barangays could ask from the Capitol during the yearend general assembly at the IEC Convention Center in Cebu City.

Unlike the present practice where the barangays just submit a resolution asking for aid from the Capitol any time of the year, Garcia has set a timeline for the giving of assistance to the barangays.

For infrastructure projects, Garcia said all resolutions asking assistance for the “hard” projects should be submitted before January 30, 2020.

A detailed program of works should also be attached to the resolution once they are submitted to the Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO). Personnel from the PPDO will also have to validate proposed projects first before giving them out for bidding./dbs