Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon said he will lobby for the approval of his proposed ordinance setting the guidelines on donation campaigns initiated by City Hall.
“In light of the Marina Mall solicitation issue, I will submit my proposed ordinance for final approval. It’s better that before the year ends, we can set up the guidelines especially since during Christmas, there are a lot of solicitation drives by City Hall,” Dizon said.
Last week, the manager of food outlet Zubuchon complained after receiving a solicitation letter from a group called the Cebu Progressive Uptown Movement.
The letter was addressed to “Ms. Marina Mall,” the name of a Lapu-Lapu City mall.
The letter was signed by Mayor Michael Rama. Sought for comment, the mayor admitted that he signed the letter.
But he said it should be the Cebu Progressive Uptown Movement that should apologize for the mistake.
“It’s a good project. I signed it because they were asking for support. That project has been going on for eight years,” he told reporters.
Zubuchon general manager Joan Danao said they’ll continue to support the project despite the issue.
The solicitation was made for a Christmas party for children from the city’s barangays.
Dizon said there’s nothing wrong with doing solicitations but setting up guidelines will help promote transparency and accountability.
“My concern is in the absence of guidelines, there’s no control over offices to make donation drives. We need to uphold the full disclosure policy. We have to be accountable to the people,” he said.
He said the recent solicitation case involving Marina Mall indicated attempts not to disclose the activity to be funded.
Had the manager not complained and the incident not reported by the media, city officials would not have known about it.
Under Dizon’s ordinance, all donation drives, both local and foreign, initiated by any office of City Hall, should be coordinated with the city’s Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) and should be approved by the mayor.
The DSWS will have to post details of the donation drive like its purpose, duration, manner, intended beneficiary, scope and drop off, in the main entrances of City Hall’s executive and legislative buildings.
In case of activities that would need donation boxes to be placed in private establishments, the proposed guidelines state that the boxes should be opened after the deadline and its contents counted in front of the establishment’s owner or authorized representative who will issue a certification specifying the amount of collection.
The guidelines also require the DSWS to post a report of all the donations received by the city within 20 days from the end of the donation drive.
If monies received by the city reach more than P1 million, the report should also be published once in a newspaper of general circulation.
Those who fail to follow the guidelines will be held administratively liable under existing laws and Civil Service regulations.
“It will minimize, if not totally prevent, corruption and misuse of public funds, increase people’s awareness of the available public funds and the allotted amount for development projects and programs in their localities,” read Dizon’s ordinance.