Talisay vice mayor, councilors to get funds for soft projects

CEBU, Philippines - Talisay City Vice Mayor Romeo Villarante will have around P2 million and the 12 city councilors will each have P1 million for soft projects. 

This after the city council approved yesterday in a special session the P1.8-billion Annual Investment Plan for next year. 

Aware of the controversial P10-billion scam involving the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), Villarante, the council presiding officer, told The Freeman that the Local Assistance Funds (LAF) for the councilors are different from the PDAF received by the national lawmakers.

Villarante said a formula for the disbursement of the LAF will be strictly followed.

He said the P1 million will be released quarterly and that requests for assistance should come from barangays. 

The proposal will go through the city council’s committee on finance, which would allocate the budget estimated for the project.

He said the process of getting the proposal for soft projects approved would take months.

Villarante said that unlike the PDAF, the local assistance fund for soft projects of city councilors will not be implemented by non-government organizations.

Under the AIP, it will be broken down into social development projects at P439,981 million, economic development projects at P16,922 million, and environment management/economic projects at P403,895 million.

Councilor Edward Alesna, chairman of the committee on budget and finance, said the AIP already includes the P300-million budget for the construction of the new Tabunok public market. 

The AIP, which has listed P1.8-billion worth of projects, gets its funds from the Local Development Fund which comes from the city’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share. – (FREEMAN)