SRP loan prepayment to be cut from 2016 budget
Osmeña
SEVERAL items under the revised P9.8 billion annual budget for Cebu City this year are expected to be disapproved by the City Council.
The biggest item, the P2.4 billion prepayment of the South Road Properties (SRP) loan, will be scrapped after the Local Finance Committee failed to submit to the City Council a copy of a demand letter to the city to settle the loan’s outstanding balance.
“There were no documents submitted for the prepayment. There was also no demand letter presented. And it was (City Treasurer) Diwa (Cuevas) herself who suggested that we just take out the proposal for the prepayment,” said Councilor Margot Osmeña, who chairs the council’s budget and finance committee.
She said Cuevas made the suggestion in order to already fast track the approval of the revised annual budget.
Instead of the full prepayment, Osmeña said the council will include the loan amortization for this year worth P375 million.
During yesterday’s scheduled hearing for the budget proposal, Osmeña also reminded the LFC to also submit to them the city’s revised Gender and Development (GAD) Plan.
The plan was among the deficiencies noted by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) 7 when it earlier rendered the city’s P6.4 billion annual budget for this year as inoperative.
City Budget Officer Marietta Gumia said they still haven’t finished revising the GAD Plan yet.
Osmeña requested that the document be submitted before Wednesday this week since they had also scheduled another budget hearing at 2 p.m. that day.
As for the other items proposed in the annual budget, Osmeña said they will decide on whether to include them or not based on the justifications made by the concerned department heads during previous hearings and discussions.
Cuevas also called for the immediate approval of the P88 million proposed mid-year bonus for City Hall employees.
The bonus corresponds to the 14th month pay of the employees as mandated by the new Salary Standardization Law which should be released not earlier than May 15.
Cuevas said the employees need it to pay for their children’s tuition for this school year.
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