City’s burial aid takes ‘almost a year’ to get

CEBU, Philippines - How long does it take to receive Cebu City’s burial assistance? A beneficiary said it has been “almost a year.”

 â€œSige lang ta pabalik-balik unya wala diay to. Dugay ra ko naka-comply sa mga (They made us keep on coming back. I have long complied with the) requirements,” said one beneficiary, who requested anonymity.

The woman said she was interviewed as part of the process in claiming the burial assistance May 2013 yet.

Sought for comment, Ruben Baculi, head of the Burial Assistance Office, said it is because of the small budget set aside for their office.

“Adto na madugay sa (It gets snagged in the) budget. Kay kuwangan man ta (Because we are short of) P15 million,” Baculi said, adding that what was allocated for burial assistance was just P30 million.

He said the budget last year was only good until April so that they were able to give for the succeeding months only this January using the 2013 funds.

“Daghan og kwarta karon kay namayad man og tax ang mga tawo pag Enero.  Dili kay among opisina ang langan (The City has plenty of funds now because people paid their taxes last January.  Our office is not the one that caused the delay,” he said.

Yesterday, around 72 beneficiaries finally got their assistance of P10,000 each. They include those who were not able to receive theirs last year.

Baculi said distribution of the assistance, which totals P2 million, would continue until Tuesday next week.

He said that an average of 20 people would file a request for burial assistance each day. The number is four times larger than when the average was just five persons a day when the program started in 2011.

Aside from P10,000 burial assistance, the city also provides P8,000 funeral assistance for a coffin that the family of a deceased resident could claim from San Fernando Funeral Homes.

Baculi reminded that only those directly related to the dead and a resident of the city can avail of the program. (FREEMAN)