Acting Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama (seated) signs of the guidelines for the release of financial assistance to barangays in Cebu City. | Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City barangays are set to receive their financial assistance in the coming weeks after the city government signed the guidelines for the release of the cash vouchers.
Councilor Raymond Garcia said that these vouchers are being prepared and once they are ready, the barangays can start to apply for their respective financial assistance.
Acting Mayor Michael Rama signed a memorandum for the barangays to avail of this financial assistance especially under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) should they place certain sitios under lockdown.
“We sign today the guidelines about the 143 million pesos that your City will apportion to our 80 barangays as subsidy so they can provide some ayuda to those most in need. By chance, 143 means I Love You. Yes, the City loves you,” said Rama during the signing on August 18, 2021.
The financial assistance will depend on the population of the barangay with Guadalupe getting P5 million; Lahug and Tisa getting P4 million each; Basak San Nicolas, Labangon, and Mambaling getting P3.2 million each; and Mabolo, Inayawan, Apas, and Talamban getting P3 million each.
Other barangays may get from P1 million to P1.5 million depending on their populations.
In the memorandum, barangays are required to pass a supplemental budget using financial assistance as the source of funds.
This means they also need to submit a breakdown of their planned allocations for their financial assistance to the city government before getting the voucher.
It is specifically stipulated that the barangays must allocate 80 percent of the budget for food aid to residents in case of lockdowns while 20 percent is allocated for medicine and COVID-19 expenses.
In the image below, the city government stipulates what the financial assistance can be used for:
Furthermore, food aid can only be given to locked-down households, sitios, and indigent residents.
Each barangay must also have a point person designated to report to the Office of the Acting Mayor and the Liga ng mga Barangays for the facilitation of the aid distribution.
Finally, all barangays must submit a fund utilization report for the utilization of the financial assistance in the next 30 days after receiving the voucher.
The barangay financial assistance was already allotted for them in the 2021 annual budget.
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