City Hall employees get P20K calamity aid; none yet for PWDs

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama already received his P20,000 calamity assistance from the city on Monday.

He said he used it to pay for his water and electric bills, aside from settling some cash advances made by his office.

“We have many activities in the Rama compound in the last days so the electric bill is high,” he said.

City Hall appropriated P84 million for the release of calamity assistance for its 4,200 regular and casual employees, and officials.

The City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) started releasing the aid Monday night.

City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom) executive director Rafael Yap said the allocation for his staff was distributed on Tuesday morning so that those manning busy streets won’t have to be pulled out.

As of noon Thursday, only Councilors Nestor Archival and James Cuenco have not collected their share, said acting city treasurer Diwa Cuevas. Cuenco is out of the country.

Councilors Margot Osmeña and Leah Japson, who earlier questioned the propriety of giving what was apparently a yearend bonus when Cebu City was not hard hit by supertyphoon Yolanda or the Oct. 15 earthquake, did not collect their share.

They  earlier said they wouldn’t receive it because they were not calamity victims.

The P20,000 aid, which matches the yearend incentive bonus received by Cebu provincial employees, is expected to come under scrutiny by auditors later.

Meanwhile, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) will have to wait a little longer for the release of the P2,000 balance of their P5,000 assistance this year.

Cuevas said the payroll for PWDs is still pending at the accounting office. Unless turned over to CTO, she will not be able to make appropriations for the purpose.

The city government needs P22 million for the release of the P2,000 cash assistance to 11,000 registered PWDs.

Rama said he will be meeting with City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete on the matter.

“Money for me is only a means to make others happy,” he said.

However, Rama said, he does not see any problem even if the release of the P2,000 balance of the PWD assistance will be postponed until next year.

“Another holiday is coming which is the Sinulog. People will also be needing money to spend during the Sinulog,” said Rama.

Senior citizens are also waiting for the release of the  P2,000 balance of this year’s assistance, which totals to P10,000 a year.