IT was after 5 p.m., but Cebu City Hall employees waited beyond office hours to receive their P20,000 Christmas bonus, dubbed “calamity assistance,” to have something to spend for their noche buena in Christmas and media noche the New Year celebrations.
Distribution started at the mayor’s office shortly before 8 p.m.
The aid, approved by the City Council as an P84 million outlay, was to be released in cash and not sent through the ATM accounts of the city’s 4, 200 regular and casual workers.
Earlier in the day, senior citizens also waited in City Hall for a payout of P2,000 for those who were unable to attend the regular distribution last Saturday.
Emma Wasawas, 62, said she would spend her money on groceries so that she and her four grandchildren would have something special to eat for noche buena (Christmas feast).
The widow said the P2,000 was a big help since she had no stable income. She lives in a shanty inside the Chinese cemetery in barangay Carreta.
Wasawas said she was unable to claim her cash aid last Saturday with other senior citizens because she went to her daughter’s home in barangay Lahug to ask for rice.
The morning schedule for north district barangays ended before she got home at noon.
Yesterday, Carreta elders had to wait until noon time at City Hall before they could collect their P2,000 cash assistance because the designated disbursing officer was late.
More than 10 Carreta senior citizens lined up as early as 8 a.m.
Acting City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said in a text message to Cebu Daily News at 11 a.m. that she would field more disbursing officers to service the elders.
The distribution for north district barangays was done under the shade of tents set up in Plaza Sugbu while the south district distribution was carried out in the social hall of the legislative building.
Emelia Menchavez, 73, who showed up in a wheelchair said she would used her P2,000 to buy medicine for her hypertension.
Elders aged 60 or more in Cebu City are entitled to receive P10,000 every year as cash assistance which is released in tranches.
They received P8,000 so far with the release of their P2,000 cash assistance last Saturday.
Cuevas said there is still no schedule for the release of the P2,000 balance.