Council OKs P66.5 million supplemental budget

CEBU, Philippines — The P66.5-million second supplemental budget for Cebu City’s operating expenses has been approved by the City Council.

Bulk of the budget or P47 million will be for the rental of heavy equipment for the city’s garbage collection program.

Another P10 million is set aside for additional funding for the city sponsored activities, while P8.6 million is allotted for the monthly honorarium of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) councilors, secretaries and treasurers.

The city has also set aside P832,458 to pay off the payables in prior years for the procurement of rice goods and the like.

Prior to the budget’s approval, some councilors asked about the allocation for the rental of heavy equipment from the months of September to December this year.

The city government is currently renting 21 units of heavy equipment from Pasajero Motors Corporation (Pamocor) for its garbage hauling operations at P678 each per hour. These include 11 dump trucks and 10 compactor trucks.

The trucks are running 24 hours to collect the trash from the barangays.

Bids and Awards Committee head Ronaldo Malacora said BAC has yet to schedule a public bidding for the heavy equipment’s rental for the last remaining four months.

In October 2017, the city government decided to rent trucks in order to improve the garbage collection and to save money for trucks’ maintenance.

Records showed that the city’s Department of Public Services has saved P21 million under its miscellaneous fund for garbage collection account this year.  The savings are from the months of January to April.

Also, Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr., council chairman of the committee on public services, earlier said the volume of garbage collected daily has decreased to 530 tons from 650 tons.

He attributed the decrease to the strict enforcement of the city’s segregation policy, which is in compliance with Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act.

Under the policy, city residents are enjoined to segregate their trash based on whether it is biodegradable, non-biodegradable, residual and special waste.

Biodegradable wastes are collected on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, while non-biodegradable and residual wastes are gathered on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

The City Council has asked DPS to submit recent reports on the utilization of rented trucks and the daily volume of hauled garbage.

On the other hand, the council has requested the executive department to submit guidelines on the distribution of monthly honoraria to SK councilors, secretaries and treasurers.

The P8.6 million approved budget for SK honorarium is intended for the months of July to December this year.

Each official will get a monthly honorarium of P2,000 from the city government.  — KBQ (FREEMAN)