Labella to Council: Reconsider P40 million budget for frontliners

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella is asking the City Council to reconsider the P40 million budget allocated for food packs for the frontliners handling quarantine centers in the city.

This after the council turned down on December 2, 2020 the additional budget the executive department is asking to feed the medical workers, job order employees, policemen, and patients of the isolation centers, Cebu City Quarantine Center, and NOAH facility.

The mayor said that there was a necessity to feed frontliners because they are constantly keeping the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in check, helping reduce the active cases in the city in the past months.

Still, Labella said he understands that the City Council has the obligation to scrutinize this budget proposed and that they may ask for additional inputs before deciding on approving the budget.

Read: Dizon to Labella: Prioritize COVID-19 response in 2021 budget

“I think this is a matter of defending the budget to the council memebers. I wish for the proponent to explain to the Vice Mayor and the other councilors why our frontliners deserve the food packs,” said the mayor in a phone interview on Sunday, December 6, 2020.

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia sponsored the resolution, which was turned out down by majority of the council members present including Vice Mayor Michael Rama.

In a previous statement, Rama already said that they did not “turn down” the P40 million request, only deferred it to the next session pending the presentation of documents and liquidation of the previous P160 million budget for food packs they approved last July 2020.

The vice mayor said that before the P40 million would be approved for the same expenses, the Council must see a proof that the previous allocation was spent properly for transparency purposes.

Yet this delay in approving the P40 million would mean that over 1,000 workers, policemen, and medical professional in the quarantine centers including the patients, will need to buy their own food for the meantime.

Labella has instructed City Administrator Floro Casas, Jr., to find another source of funds for the food packs so that this can be funded still in the following weeks.

The mayor is still confident that the council will reconsider their stand and will approve the P40 million, the least the city could do for the tired frontliners in the quarantine center.

/bmjo