Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella is instructing barangays to comply with the requirements to avoid delays in the release of their financial assistance. | file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella belied reports that there had been purposeful delays on the financial assistance for the city’s barangays.
Some barangay officials have recently complained that the financial assistance from the city has not been released to them this year despite the P600 million allotted for it in the 2021 annual budget.
Mayor Labella said that there was no such delay in the release of different aids to city residents including the burial aid that was recently distributed to beneficiaries in the barangays.
“Naapil na sa 2021 budget. Ang nakalangan gyod tinood kay ang process sa requirements. Kani atong mga barangay officials, ato ni silang hangyoon, to complete the requirements. Dili na tinood nga walay kwarta,” said the mayor.
The mayor added that the city government cannot simply release the budget, the amount of which will depend on the population of the barangays unless the latter has fully complied with necessary documents.
On March 2021, Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, the City Council’s majority floor leader, said that barangays who wish to avail of the city government’s financial assistance must be able to present a liquidation of past financial assistance they have received.
READ: Liquidation needed for Cebu City barangays to get financial assistance
Garcia said the city needs enough proof that the barangays are using their funds properly, as financial assistance of huge amounts requires a degree of trust.
The councilor revealed that some barangays are yet to provide the liquidation of their financial assistance in 2020, which reached around P1 million to P3 million depending on the population of the barangay.
However, it can be noted that there have been no guidelines for the release of the financial aid to the barangays for 2021, which is the reason why no barangays have received the budget yet.
With this, Labella has instructed City Administrator Floro Casas Jr., Councilor Garcia, and the local finance committee to come up with guidelines for releasing the financial aid.
Once the guidelines are set, the financial aid can then be released to the barangays.
While waiting for the said guidelines, Labella urged the barangays to complete the necessary prerequisites like the liquidation of past aids so that when the financial aid rolls out, they will not experience any delays. /rcg