No monthly release of senior citizens’ aid

No monthly release. Cebu City Hall’s legal office insists that there will be no monthly release of assistance for elders as demanded by lawyer Reymelio Delute. The provision on monthly releasing of aid was vetoed by Mayor Rama, an act upheld by the budget department.
(CDN FILE PHOTO)

Cebu City Hall will not release the cash assistance to senior citizens on a monthly basis.

This was the reply of the city legal office to the demand letter sent by lawyer Reymelio Delute to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama asking that the financial assistance be given at P1,000 per month.

“While we understand that you may have an urgent need to receive on a monthly basis the financial assistance which the Cebu City Government was generous enough to grant its senior citizens as a privilege, we are constrained to inform you, however, that the provision  that you are referring to which supposedly provides for the monthly release of the financial assistance was vetoed by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama,” City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo said in a letter reply to Delute last Thursday.

Delute earlier asked Rama to release the cash every month as provided for in the approved ordinance covering the city’s annual budget this year.

A copy of the letter was also furnished to the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas along with Delute’s threat to sue the mayor for dereliction of duty if he refuses to do so.

Just last week, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)-7 released a review on the city’s budget ordinance. DBM-7 upheld the mayor’s veto and declared inoperative the items vetoed by the mayor, including the condition inserted by the Council that the assistance should be released monthly.

“Rest assured, the release of the financial assistance will be done, taking into account the best interests of the senior citizens of Cebu City,” Castillo added in his letter-reply.

Copies of the letter were also sent to Rama, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, City Treasurer’s Office, Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, Councilors Margarita Osmeña and Sisinio Andales, Department of Finance-7 and the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman-Visayas.

So far, the city has only released P1,000 of the P12,000 due to senior citizens for this year. This was done in late January, along with the P2,000 balance from last year.