Fund search to add seniors cash aid before Holy Week

Cebu City Hall’s availability of funds will determine if it can afford to allocate P4,000 each to the city’s senior citizens before the Holy Week break, the City Treasurer’s Office said last Friday.

The allocation is part of the planned quarterly release of senior citizens aid which Mayor Michael Rama wanted released on March 25 and 26, acting City Treasurer Emma Villarete said.

Villarete said they only identified about P155 million as of last Friday which is enough to cover the P2,500 assistance for each of the 62,000 registered senior citizen beneficiaries.

“(This early) we cannot commit on the P4,000 yet.  It depends on our financial status because we have other payables,” she told Cebu Daily News.

Rama wanted P4,000 of the P10,000 senior citizen assistance released before the Holy Week break while the remaining P6,000 balance will be released at P2,000 each for June, September and December.

The mayor said he wants the aid distributed quarterly even after the City Council passed in last Wednesday’s session an ordinance to schedule the release of senior citizen assistance during the first Monday of the month.

Villarete said their office isn’t opposed to a monthly distribution of senior citizen assistance provided that the schedule for release will be done during the weekend so it won’t hamper their office operations.

Cash disbursing officers will have to spend the day in the 80 barangays where the distribution of senior citizen assistance is made.

The City Treasurer’s Office, Villarete said, will start processing the first quarter senior citizen assistance as soon as they receive the payroll request from the Office of the Senior Citizen Affairs (OSCA) and MICS.

As soon as they receive the payroll request, Villarete will have the city’s cash in bank checked to determine if the city has enough money to release the P4,000 assistance.

“We will certify only what we can certify up to the period covered.  Much as we support the release of the P4,000 assistance, we also have to balance it with the city’s financial capabilities,” she said.

Filinvest Land Inc. paid the city P234.8 million last Thursday as final payment of the 10.6 hectare waterfront property which the real estate developer bought at the South Road Properties (SRP).

Rama wanted the money spent on senior citizens aid but Villarete said the amount will have to be included in the city’s general funds to settle its obligations and its payables to its suppliers and other creditors.