CEBU, Philippines — Three hundred more small business owners have received P5,000 in livelihood assistance from the Cebu City government.
They were among the 910 aid beneficiaries, the micro enterprise owners based in the socialized housing sites around the city. The qualified beneficiaries come from the 26 barangays in Cebu City.
The aid is part of the city’s Micro Enterprise Development Fund Program. The aid distribution resumed Monday, June 7.
City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia previously sponsored a resolution setting aside P4.55 million for the livelihood assistance program. The budget was sourced from the city’s General Fund.
The program is seen to help small businessmen recoup their losses or help revive the community-based enterprises that were shut down owing to the health crisis.
Garcia earlier said he has always been a “firm believer’ of the important role of small businesses in the communities as a social unit.
“Mao nga kombinsido kaayo ko nga kinahanglan gyung’ mga revitalize nato ang atong micro enterprises pinaagi sa paghatag og mga puhunan sa mga nanira na nga mga patigayon,” he said in a statement dated March 2021 after the resolution was approved.
The financial assistance should only be used to start or restart a business, or to sustain it to keep going and not for buying basic necessities.
“Economic recovery and tuyo ani,” Garcia said in a separate statement.
The Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) headed by Simeon Romarate is responsible for monitoring the compliance of the beneficiaries. — Loreine Kyra Lebumfacil, CNU Comm Intern, KQD (FREEMAN)