CEBU, Philippines - The amount of funds that were requested for the payment of various projects and will be charged against the Pagcor funds for the month of October has exceeded the city’s monthly cash donation from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).
The Cebu City Government only receives P3 million every month as its share from Pagcor for allowing the operation of Casino Filipino within its territory.
Councilor Noel Eleuterio Wenceslao, vice chairman of the City Council’s committee on budget and finance, said while the city only receives P3 million of cash donation from Pagcor, the total amount of requests for funding that they received last month reached to P4,775,670.
Wenceslao said it has been noted that some of the activities requested to be charged against Pagcor funds are not within the prescribed guidelines issued by the agency.
Pagcor guidelines provides that spending of the funds must involve self-sustainable economic livelihood projects, infrastructure projects essential to the community and connected with the delivery of basic health services.
Also included are projects designed to prevent widespread disease or epidemics, those for the improvement of peace and order, emergency assistance to victims of natural disasters and calamities and projects for social amelioration.
Cebu City Acting Accountant Diwa Cuevas certified that as of September 30, 2012 the Pagcor funds’ available balance for prioritization is P26.9 million, but there are several requests for funding that will be charged against it.
But even if the City Council will approve the charging of the expenses against the Pagcor funds, this is not an assurance that the projects would be implemented because the mayor may change his mind about it.
In a previous interview, Mayor Michael Rama admitted that there are millions of various projects that are supposed to be implemented under his administration out of the Pagcor funds, but these were not prioritized by him even if these were already approved by the Cebu City Council.
These projects amounted to some P11.6 million.
The committee on budget and finance urged Rama to prioritize those projects that were approved by the City Council last year.
Wenceslao observed that some of the requested funding can be charged against the city’s financial assistance to the barangays. — (FREEMAN)