City takes over burial assistance program

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Government through the Office of the Mayor has officially taken over the implementation of the burial assistance program which used to be the job of selected barangays.

In Mayor Michael Rama’s Executive Order No. 11-7, the office of the Mayor will now be the implementing office while new guidelines to avail of the assistance have been set.

This came after the barangays placed in charge of the implementation complained that they cannot cope with the paperwork.

The program used to be implemented by six barangays, three in the north and three in the south. The rest of the barangays were clustered and assigned to each of the barangays tasked to implement the program.

Last year, some funeral parlors complained regarding the delay in the payment and even threatened to suspend the burial services.

“The processing or workload is too much for the coordinator barangays to handle and implement efficiently the Burial Assistance Program, thus the city undertakes to handle directly the program for 2011,” the EO read.

Mayor Rama allotted P20 million for the program which will be charged under the Aid to City Barangays account.

The EO is however only for the P10,000 cash assistance portion of the program. 

The P8,000 worth of burial services such as embalming and make-up of the deceased, the use of the viewing equipment or apparatus, the processing of death certificate, the processing of burial permit, the use or parlor’s hearse and a sympathy bouquet, will still have to be bid out.

City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete said another set of guidelines will be provided later for the burial services portion.

According to the guidelines, the P10,000 cash assistance is available if the deceased is a permanent resident of Cebu City.

The claimant must also be a permanent resident of Cebu City and must be the nearest kin who took care of or lived with the deceased immediately prior to death.

The authorized claimants according to the order of priority are the mother or father, husband or wife, children, grandparents, brother, sister, aunt, uncle and nephew or niece.

The claimant must present at least two of the proof of permanent residence which may be the voter’s registration, senior citizens card issued by the city government, tax declaration of properties, utilities bill indicating address in Cebu City, birth certificate, marriage certificate or school records indicating residence in Cebu City.

Other requirements that must be secured are the letter of endorsement addressed to the mayor to come from the barangay captain, barangay councilors or city councilors, certified true copy of death certificate, letter of request to avail the assistance and a social case study prepared and duly signed by the social worker and approved by the mayor.

All applications shall be submitted within 60 days from the date of death. (FREEMAN NEWS)