Ownership issue delays construction

Amid reports that Cebu City Hall’s Peace and Order Program (POP) has not used up bulk of its P400 million budget for this year, Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak said it’s already being worked on.

And even if not all of the programs and activities allocated with a budget are implemented this year, he said it can still be carried over next year since capital outlay allocations are considered continuing appropriations.

“The Peace and Order Program is just to supplement and to support the PNP. The PNP has its own mandate and has its own budget. The POP just supports, not only for the police, but as a whole including barangays, BFP, NBI, BJMP, Maritime, Hall of Justice,” he told reporters yesterday.

Tumulak, who heads the POP, gave the explanation after the city council’s committee on budget and finance pointed out during the budget hearing for the POP’s P240 million proposed budget for 2016 that bulk of their budget this year has remained unobligated.

Tumulak also said there are still some things that the police officials need to settle before implementing some of the approved projects under the POP for this year.

For the P50 million budget for a new Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) building, he said the CCPO is yet to resolve ownership issues on the building and the lots where it stands now.

“We can’t just construct a new building if we haven’t resolved its ownership (issue),” Tumulak said.

He said this has been the concern even during the time of former CCPO director Noli Romana, and even current director Marciano Batiancela Jr. already knows about it.

For the P17 million allocation for the renovation of CCPO’s firing range, he said CCPO is yet to settle issues on complaints by nearby establishments on the noise from the range and on ricocheting bullets.

Aside from these two projects, it was stated under the Status of Appropriations, Obligations and Balances (SAOB) of City Hall as of October 15 that some other budget has remained unused.

This includes P12 million for fire-fighting equipment, P28 million for various police equipment and P93 million for motor vehicles, among others.

It was CCPO deputy city director for administration Supt. Artemio Ricabo who defended the POP’s proposed budget and answered some of the councilors’ questions during last Monday’s budget hearing. But Tumulak was not impressed with him since he’s not the right person to answer the council’s questions.

“Supt. Ricabo is not the right person to speak about the Peace and Order Program. What he did,  he included politics already. I would rather advise him to please shut up. Don’t taint the police with politics. He should just coordinate with my office,” he said.

Tumulak said he wasn’t able to attend the budget hearing since he was working on his papers for a trip abroad next week.

Aside from the two programs which still have concerns, Tumulak said the other budget allocations are already in the pipeline.

He said the P12 million for fire-fighting equipment was already bid out last October. The P28 million budget for various police equipment cannot be used yet since there are different requests from police officers.

He said during yesterday’s meeting of the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC), he told the CCPO officials to collate their requests and submit it to the POP for processing.

The P93 million for motor vehicles, he said, was submitted to the council during its session last week, but the request was referred to the committee on budget and finance.