Young criticizes Rama on scholars' allowance

CEBU, Philippines - Even during the Christmas season, Cebu City Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young yesterday criticized Mayor Michael Rama and his staff for giving wrong information to the Cebu City government’s scholars regarding where they can collect their P1, 000 allowance.

According to Young, the scholars were told to proceed to the Cebu Normal University (CNU) so they could claim their allowance, only to find out that there was no distribution of such incentives there.

After several hours of waiting, some of the scholars received text messages informing them to proceed to the third floor of the City Hall executive building where the City Treasurer’s Office is situated, to collect the allowance.

Young said the mayor should refrain from making “irresponsible announcements” if he has no knowledge because hundreds of scholars especially from the mountain barangays, have been coming over to the city since last week to collect the P1, 000 allowance only to be told that their benefits are not ready yet.”

The vice mayor revealed that Rama made the announcement during the party of the city scholars at the Cebu Coliseum last December 20 where the mayor reportedly announced that the distribution of the P1,000 was scheduled to be held at CNU yesterday.

When Young verified, it was found out that some of the colleges accredited by the city to accept scholars have not submitted yet the list of beneficiaries from their respective schools. The vice mayor said some of the students, accompanied by their parents, went to the Department of Education (DepEd) City Division and to his office to ask where they can collect the allowance.

“Gapanon intawon ang mga scholars didto sa CNU. Miadto na lang ko aron maestoryahan ang mga bata kay looy kaayo mausik ra ang ilang plete. Dili g’yud unta nako gusto kumentaryohan ni kay ingnon ta nga namolitika, but I think dili pud pwede palabyon ni kay usbon napud unya niya,” Young said.

In a previous interview, Rama explained that he required one of the parents to accompany their children when they collect the P1, 000 allowance so he could remind them of their obligation to their children.

Each of the close to 8,000 scholars of the city is entitled to P20,000 scholarship grants at P10,000 per semester, but Rama has decided to give them P1,000 cash allowance so each of them have pocket money.

Assistant City Treasurer Emma Villarete said the distribution of the P1,000 allowance to the scholars shall be made per school. (FREEMAN)