Newsbriefs

Drainage, seniors aid top City budget

DRAINAGE projects worth P3.3 billion is the biggest item in the P10.5 billion budget sought by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama.

The drainage improvement projects were identified in the city’s master plan.

The budget was submitted to the City Council secretariat last Friday.

The deadline for the submission of next year’s draft budget was on Oct. 16.

Other items include the P720 million allocation for senior citizens cash gifts as part of the mayor’s promise to raise the assistance to seniors from P10,000 to P12,000.

Rama also wanted the appropriation for the city’s scholarship program raised from P300 million this year to P371.9 million next year. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac

Court rules against Cebu City in tax case

A COURT ruled against the Cebu City government in its tax collection case against a private hospital.

In his ruling, Judge Simeon Dumdum of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court Branch 7 said Perpetual Succour Hospital (PSH) is a non-profit organization and should be spared from business taxes. “It is clear that PSH is not organized for profit. It has no capital stock divided and shares,” he said.

Dumdum ordered the city government to stop collecting business tax from PSH and reimburse its legal expenses.

The PSH is a religious, non-stock and non-profit institution run by the Roman Catholic congregation Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres since 1963. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol

Training for teachers

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial office said they will train teachers on how to deal with voters during stampedes and aftershocks in light of last Tuesday’s earthquake.

“We cannot postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections in Cebu,” Comelec provincial supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said.

He said they will allow only 10 people at a time to vote in polling precincts. Correspondent Christine Emily L. Pantaleon