City dads to get P3M each ?pork? | Sun.Star Network Online
City dads to get P3M each ‘pork’
Cebu City councilors and not only the city’s senior citizens will get a share from at least P250.7-million in surplus funds from 2008 that was announced by Mayor-on-leave Tomas Osmeña last Sunday.
Each of the city’s 16 elected councilors will get P3 million in “pork barrel” although the amount could reach P10 million depending on the City’s fiscal performance in the coming months, Osmeña bared.
The mayor had already said he would use part of the surplus funds to fulfill the promise he made to senior citizens last year. This involves giving each of them P1,000 for their birthday and another P1,000 as Christmas gift.
In a news teleconference via the Internet, Osmeña said last Sunday that each councilor will be given the discretion to identify projects needed in their districts, which the City will fund in the Annual Investment Plan (AIP).
“It’s up to them how they want to spend it, but the idea is to be more responsive to the needs of the constituents. It can be a new basketball court, or any project for the barangays,” Osmeña said.
Not enough
While some councilors said that P3 million is not enough, they conceded that it will allow them to start priority projects in their respective districts and barangays.
Among those that they will give attention to are drainage, street lighting and road repair projects for the barangays.
City Administrator Francisco Fernandez clarified that it will still be the executive department that will disburse the funds, but the councilors will be given the free hand to decide what projects to implement.
“This is because we got complaints that only a few councilors are getting a bulk of the projects, so we will ask them to identify what projects they want. It can be infrastructure, it can be anything,” he told reporters yesterday.
Fernandez said additional projects would be funded later this year.
In this year’s AIP, the City Development Council executive committee already proposed to include P60 million worth of barangay development projects, P10 million for asphalting of roads, P9.8 million for the purchase of 14 trucks for south district barangays and P1 million for sodium lamps.
In separate interviews, city councilors said that drainage, road concreting and asphalting, street lights and medical services are the common concerns of barangay officials.
Councilor Edwin Jagmoc, chairman of the Council committee on public services, said he would prioritize the drainage in Urgello St. to address the flooding problem there.
Projects
The project requires at least P12 million to implement, so he will discuss the matter with other councilors if they can help fund it through their “pork barrel.”
“Kuwangon gyud ang P3 million pero maayo na lang nga naa. Anyway, masabotan ra man siguro ni sa mga konsehal nga tabangan ang funding,” said Jagmoc, north district councilor for Barangays Sambag I, Sambag II, Ermita, Pulangbato and San Jose.
South District Councilors Richard Osmeña and Rodrigo Abellanosa said they will also discuss the projects with other councilors and the barangay captains in their district.
Among the projects they initially identified are those on street lighting, road asphalting, and drainage. (LCR)
Pork Barrel... How does it work?
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