Calamity funds to pay for 3 councilors’ Paris travel

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama and three city councilors are scheduled to fly to Paris, France today to attend the  global forum on Climate Change.

OSMENA

Rama was invited to talk during the Climate Resilience and Disaster Risk Management in Asian Cities forum, a side event of the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris but will arrive to late for the speaking engagement.

Organizers will pay for his travel and accommodation.

The travel of Councilors Dave Tumulak, Hanz Abella and Richard Osmeña will be charged to calamity funds of Cebu City.

The mayor’s  five-minute talk is scheduled for the Asian Cities forum  at 11:45 a.m. today. But Rama said he won’t be able to make it on time  since city officials leave Manila tonight for Amsterdam.

COP21 refers to the countries that  signed the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In an e-mail to Rama, Eilish O’Loughlin, junior officers of the Cities and Regions Pavilion of the TAP2015 at COP21, invited the mayor to speak at their side event.

“We think that this session would be a fantastic opportunity for Cebu City to showcase your outstanding work in the area of resilience and disaster risk reduction,” she said in the e-mail.

Rama said he will be back in Cebu by  December 10 for the  opening of Robinsons Galleria Cebu.

The other councilors will stay until December 13 for the end of the conference.

They were issued a travel clearance by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Airfare, hotel stay and per  diem of the three councilors will be charged to the city’s disaster funds.

TUMULAK

At 350 euro  a day (P51 per euro), each councilor is estimated spend  P195,000 each for the 11-day trip, said Tumulak, who heads the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Round trip airfare will cost another P45,000.

City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said each of official was granted  a cash advanceto be liquidated up on their return:
*Mayor Rama – P298,000
*Tumulak –  P299,000
*Osmeña and Abella  – P349,000 each.

During last week’s  City Council  session,  Councilor Philip Zafra filed a  resolution approving their travel only to withdraw it before it could be discussed.

ABELLA

City Councilor Margarita Osmeña, who heads the committee on budget and finance, said she didn’t  think it was proper to use  disaster funds for foreign travel.

“I wonder where they are  going to charge it? To the calamity fund? I don’t think so (that they can do that),” she said.

The invitations came  from Gino Van Begin, secretary general of the ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability.