P20,000 calamity aid OK for Cebu city gov’t personnel

WHETHER or not they actually suffered damage from the Oct. 15 earthquake or typhoon Yolanda, each employee and official of the Cebu city government will receive P20,000 as “calamity assistance.”

The wholesale aid was approved yesterday in time for Christmas by the Cebu City Council.

“It can be given now or next year. You don’t have to give all the money this year,” said a grateful Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

“I thank the council because they also feel that we are employees,” he said.

Not everyone was satisfied with the decision.

Councilor Margot Osmeña and Leah Japson said they would waive their P20,000 aid.

“It’s not an objection because we all need cash for Christmas but I would like to ask the treasurer not to include my name,” Japson said.

Earlier Osmeña asked the proponent Councilor Sisinio Andales who would qualify to receive the P20,000 aid.

Andales said all of the city’s 4,200 employees were qualified “subject to availability of funds”.

“So, that means that qualification is based on employment and not on being a calamity victim,” Osmeña pointed out.

About P61.1 million will be spent for the aid as part of a P140 million supplemental budget no. 3 which the council will deliberate on this afternoon.

Councilor Gerardo Carillo said the calamity assistance needs a recommendation from the Local Risk Reduction Management Council and not just the city’s Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (Praise).

“I have no objection, but invoking calamity is something else,” Carillo said.

After a five minute recess, the council passed the measure.

Councilor Japson then asked to be excluded from the list of aid recipients.

The councilor said in an interview that she doesn’t feel comfortable about receiving the money because she is not a calamity victim.

“Mauwaw gyud ko kay dili ko victim sa calamity (I would be embarassd because I’m not a calamity victim),” Osmeña said.

“I cannot reconcile that we ask for contributions (for the Cebu City Medical Center project) including from the vendors and we ask P20,000 in calamity assistance,” Osmeña told reporters.

Osmeña said it is also ironic that the Cebu City government would spend P20,000 for its employees when they could not even afford to pay the financial assistance of senior citizens, Persons with Disability (PWD) and the honoraria of some Job Order personnel.