It’s still up to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to confirm if they constitute a quorum, but the Cebu City Council of four’s decision to craft a P6 billion budget is not only essential but should have been done also before the local campaign period.
Problem is, the budget had been embroiled in partisan politics, with outgoing Mayor Michael Rama wanting to pass a P9.6 billion that included the prepayment of the South Road Properties (SRP) loan, and the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bloc always pointing to that pending case in court that sought to handcuff the city from using the P8.6 billion SRP downpayment by the SM-Ayala consortium.
As it turned out, the P8.6 billion paid to the city’s coffers was the only money that’s keeping Cebu City afloat and away from the brink of bankruptcy, at least according to the inventory done by the transition team of Cebu City Mayor-elect Tomas Osmeña.
If Rama was reelected, along with reelectionist Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and several councilors who were suspended by the Office of the President in relation to the P20,000 calamity aid case, the mayor would likely have played anew the role of tax collector and head to the SM and Ayala offices to demand an advance payment of the SRP lots in order to augment his lobbying efforts to pass a P9.6 billion budget.
Regardless of how things turned out, it was only a matter of time before everyone on either side of the political fence had to agree to hold a session and pass an operative P6 billion budget as dictated of course by the incoming administration.
While incoming Mayor Osmeña made it clear that there won’t be new projects in his first year in office, the passage of the P6 billion budget is needed if only to comply with last year’s directive from outgoing President Benigno Aquino III to pay the mid-year bonus of City Hall employees.
Curiously though, the P6 billion budget may or may not include an allocation for the repairs and renovation of the Cebu City Medical Center, a pet project of now allied Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos.
Which is a shame since so much time, funds, and efforts were spent into repairing the city hospital, and there is still considerable demand for its services from the city’s indigent residents. For now, work should have to continue at least until the city’s hospital can have a semblance of a mid-level operational medical institution that is able to better service the city’s poor.
And what of the payment of the tipping fee for the collection and disposal of the city’s garbage at the private landfill in Consolacion town? Until the city government orders the reopening of the Inayawan landfill site, the hundreds of tons of garbage produced by Cebu City should have to go somewhere and not be left uncollected and abandoned in the streets to fester and rot.
Acting Mayor Margot Osmeña said she would agree to the payment of the tipping fee if a contract is worked out between the city and Asia Energy Systems Corp. But we won’t hold our breath on that one, especially with her husband coming on board more than two weeks from now.
There is little doubt that the DILG will allow the City Council to pass the P6 billion budget, but we hope City Hall can fund those programs that are of utmost priority before the end of this month.
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