SKF Cebu City president Jessica Resch | photo grabbed from Jessica Resch’s FB page
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) councilor will have to wait longer for the promised financial assistance of P2,000 per month from the city government.
The city government has put on hold the distribution of financial assistance to the SK councilors despite them having received the financial assistance from 2018 to 2019 under the term of former mayor, Tomas Osmeña, after the City Council approved the resolution for the financial assistance.
Since Mayor Edgardo Labella took the seat in July 2019, the financial assistance distribution has stopped as well.
Ex officio Councilor Jessica Resch, the SK Federation president in Cebu City, issued an official statement online saying that the distribution had been put on hold by the City Administrator’s Office.
The distribution was supposed to be done on July 31, 2020 to 17 barangays which completed the necessary requirements set by the City Treasurer’s Office and of Mayor Labella.
Read more: COA to Cebu City: Stop release of honoraria to SK officials, brgy workers
However, City Administrator Floro Casas, Jr. told Resch that the Commission on Audit has questioned the financial assistance to these elected SK officials, and the city would have to stop the distribution for now.
“We were surprised and saddened to know that the pre-listed vouchers for the SK Financial Assistance to the 17 barangays has allegedly been put on hold. Upon inquiry, the City Administrator informed the Federation that the Commission on Audit was allegedly the ones putting the release of the said Financial Assistance on hold,” said Resch.
Resch said that there will be no distribution until further notice and apologized to the SK councilors who have been waiting for the financial assistance.
She added that she would be coordinating with the city government to iron out the problems for the release of this financial assistance.
SK Council members in barangays do not receive honoraria or compensation from the city government or the barangays.
Resch said the honoraria could have helped the SK officials amid the pandemic especially that the SKs have been working alongside the barangays in providing aid to the residents greatly affected by the long quarantine. /dbs