Council okays P4.7 million for drainage rehab

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City Council yesterday approved the P4.7 million proposed budget for the rehabilitation of the city's drainage systems to prevent the streets from getting flooded during heavy rains.

Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa, through a resolution, proposed for the allocation of P4,770,779 to be taken from the city's calamity funds to finance the desilting and rehabilitation of the drainage systems in the city.

Abellanosa said it was the City Disaster Coordinating Council (CDCC) that earlier passed a resolution that the budget needed for the city's flood control program shall be taken from the calamity funds.

During the regular session of the Cebu City Council yesterday, the city legislators were convinced that there is a need to use the calamity budget to prevent flooding in the city.

Councilor Edgardo Labella had earlier asked the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) to speed up the cleaning of the city's drainage systems that has been clogged up for the past years.

The city's downtown areas, particularly Colon Street, get flooded easily even during ordinary rains because the drainage systems are already filled up with mud and garbage. This has prompted Labella to solicit the help of each and every resident to do their share in seeing to it that the adverse effects of the La Niña phenomenon can be minimized.

City treasurer Ofelia Oliva said there is no problem if the city will charge the expenses for the rehabilitation of drainage systems to the calamity budget because the city still has a balance of P52 million calamity funds.

The law provides that the remaining unappropriated calamity budget will be reverted to the General Funds after the yearend.

The calamity budget of a local government unit is equivalent to five percent of its overall annual budget and it can be used only if the particular place where the funds are to be spent has been declared under calamity area.

The City Council has already declared the entire city under the state of calamity preparedness.  (FREEMAN)