BO-PK bloc questions P50M use

The administration Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bloc of the Cebu City Council questioned Mayor Michael Rama’s plan to spend part of the P50 million appropriation for site development for hiring job order workers.

The council’s housing committee chairman Councilor Alvin Dizon said the hiring of personnel and the purchase of furniture and fixture should be charged to the city’s Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE).

Dizon objected to Rama’s executive order which Rama issued last Feb. 19 that set the guidelines for the use of the P50 million appropriation that was included in the agenda of the Council’s Feb. 27 session.

Councilor Nida Cabrera said the site development funds should be spent on road improvement and building riprap in urban poor relocation sites.

The relocation sites are in barangays Busay, Budlaan, Binaliw, San Jose, Pit-os, Lorega and Talamban in the north district and barangays Suba, Alaska-Mambaling, Sawang Calero, Pasil, Tisa, Labangon and Bulacao in the south district.

“We agreed to put the P50 million budget because we have seen the status of the relocation sites. Why use the funding for other purpose?” Cabrera said.

Section 4 of Rama’s EO gave the Department for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) the authority to oversee implementation of site development programs.

Councilor Jose Daluz III, Rama’s ally in the council, agreed with Dizon but said he doesn’t see anything wrong with using part of the P50 million to hire job order workers.

Daluz said the furniture and fixtures referred to in the EO are plastic chairs and tables requested by urban poor associations for their meetings.

Job order workers will consist mostly of carpenters hired to work on site development projects.

Daluz said barangays in the south need road improvements while those in the mountain barangays need ripraps. Correspondent Edison delos Angeles