CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation in Cebu City is asking once more that the city government release the P1 million financial assistance to each SK unit in the barangays that was part of the 2019 annual budget.
Councilor Jessica Resch, the SK Federation president, said that the budget should have been released in 2019 yet the first half of 2020 is almost over and many of the SKs still had not yet received the budget that had been allotted for them by the city government.
The need is more pressing now as the SK has been actively supporting their barangay units in providing for the needs of the constituents, rendering them as frontliners of the villages.
“With the COVID-19 wreaking havoc, my attention has now shifted to assisting SK officials who have contracted the virus. To date, there are seven SK councilors and one SK chairman who contracted the virus,” said Resch.
Resch said that one of them had been hospitalized with bills reaching up to P200,000, and with no help from the city, the SK official was only hoping for kind-hearted individuals to help pay off the hospital bill.
For Resch, this is a poor way of repaying the hard work of SK officials who have played their role in helping the barangays fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said it was not fair that the SK was working as hard as any other barangay worker, yet they had remained to be underappreciated and even scrutinized for alleged “inaction.”
Resch also pointed out that at least P17.8 million was allotted for the SK in the 2020 annual budget of the city for 2020, but this was also not distributed.
Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, the chairperson of the committee on budget and finance, said that the city was willing to release the budget of P1 million per SK after they would provide the necessary documents.
The required documents include a detailed project plan as well as an official receipt to signify the acceptance of the financial assistance.
Resch said that many of the SKs had already complied with these requirements, yet they were still waiting for the release of the budget.
She is urging the mayor to fulfill his promise about the SK receiving their financial assistance. Resch said this was because the SK would need the funds to help in the fight against COVID-19 in their respective barangays./dbs