Newsbriefs

SENIORS’ MONEY

CEBU City’s senior citizens in Cebu City will have to wait a little longer before getting their financial assistance from City Hall.
One-fourth of the budget for this year’s requirements or P52 million is being considered in Supplemental Budget No. 2, which is pending review.
Cebu City’s 40,000 registered senior citizens need at least P200 million to enjoy the city government’s annual benefit of P2,000 as Christmas bonus and P2,000 as a birthday gift, said Guillermo Casanillo, head of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs.
“The amount (of P52 million) is not enough but we can allocate it in another supplemental budget this year” Casinillo told Cebu Daily News.
The P4,000 cash assistance for each senior citizen in Cebu City was a benefit started during the term of mayor Tomas Osmeña, but release of the money stopped for a year reportedly due to funding problems./CORRESPONDENT FATRICK R. TABADA

AGAINST ILLEGAL SHELL TRADE

At least 30 shell and shellcraft exporters in Cebu gathered yesterday to condemn the illegal harvesting of corals and shells.
The exporters want to form a group under the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., to reorganize the industry and help in the fight against the illegal traders, said Joy Sharpe of Cebu Asia Trade Center.
The group finalized the requirements for the Bureau of Customs Client Profile Registration System.
Sharpe said if they do not comply with the CPRS the industry will die as they will not be recognized as part of the export industry or allowed to export./correspondent Carine M. Asutilla

QUARRY PERMIT SUSPENDED

CEBU Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday ordered the suspension of the quarry permit of Rogelio Fuentes, the owner of a quarry site in barangay Calasagan, Argao town, southern Cebu.
The order came after two workers got trapped for almost 12 hours in a mine entrance.
The order cited irregularities in Fuentes’ quarry operations that the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources discovered.
First, the quarry site lacks protective measures to prevent landslide and slope failures especially during heavy downpour.
Second, over-hanging heavy boulders in the area could fall when rain soaks the ground.
Third, a tunnel used by workers in the quarry site is unsafe and prohibited under the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued to the permit holder.
The suspension order will not be lifted unless Fuentes will put in place measures to ensure that the incident won’t happen again./CORRESPONDENT CARMEL LOISE MATUS