CH budget for burial assistance depleted

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government has used up its P30 million budget for burial assistance this year to pay for unpaid beneficiaries last year.

Ruben Baculi, head of the Cebu City Burial Assistance Office, said the fund has already been depleted but close to 2,000 applications remain pending and could not be processed for lack of money.

Baculi said a total of P22,680,000 payables from last year was paid out using this year’s allocation. The remaining P7,320,000 was used to assist 467 beneficiaries in the months of January and February.

The city government is giving P10,000 cash assistance for burial and another P8,000 for coffin.

According to Baculi, a total of  P15,650,000 worth of benefits last year remain unfunded. The amount is broken down to P7,410,000 for the second quarter and P8,240,000 for the third quarter.

Baculi also admitted that the processing of the burial assistance benefits had been very slow. In fact, there are beneficiaries last year that have yet to receive assistance because the City Treasurer’s Office is yet to issue the checks worth P11,540,000.

There are also applications worth P470,000 that are yet to be approved by the accounting office and worth P790,000 checks ready for release to last year’s beneficiaries.  Baculi said the program lacks the needed funds to accommodate  all  applications because the P45,650,000  budget request was slashed to P30 million by the City Council.

He, however, said the insufficiency of funds for the burial assistance program could be addressed through another supplemental budget.

“Ang kani nga program nagkinahanglan man gyud og saktong budget kay daghan man ang nagkinahanglan ilabi na kay wala nay PDAF o pork barrel,” he said, explaining that when the pork barrel was scrapped, the request for burial assistance increased from 10 to 20 a day.

Although they lack funds, Baculi said they are still accepting request but it would take more or less five months for the assistance to be released. He said they are implementing a new guideline for the program to avoid abuse.

Beneficiary with SSS, memorial plan, GSIS or insurance could not avail of the assistance for coffin but may get the P10,000 cash assistance.

Baculi clarified that the program does not limit only to voters but all residents of Cebu City.  (FREEMAN)