THE Cebu City Council approved a P15.8-million allocation for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to fund, among others, the training of election inspectors.
In yesterday’s regular session, the council approved a resolution by Councilor Margot Osmeña charging the amount under the City Sponsored Activities account of the city for last year.
Prior to the approval of the budget, City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia said the city has been operating on a reenacted budget from last year after the regional Department of Budget and Management (DBM-7) rendered inoperative the city’s P6.4-billion annual budget for this year.
“In 2015, the budget for city-sponsored activities was P42 million. But nothing has been charged and obligated under it yet. Since this (election reserve) is really urgent, we can charge it as of now to the city-sponsored,” Osmeña said.
By the time the revised 2016 annual budget submitted by Mayor Michael Rama to the council last week is approved, the amount for the election reserve will be deducted from it.
Under the proposal submitted by Comelec Cebu City north and south district election officers Marchel Sarno and Edwin Cadungog, the bulk of the amount or about P9.39 million will be spent on retraining 111 members of the board of election inspectors.