Cebu City’s SARS crisis team gets additional funds

CEBU CITY — The city council has approved this year’s second supplemental budget and an additional P500,000 appropriation for the crisis management team on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).

The biggest portion of the P640.1-million supplemental budget was the P152.4-million allocation for the South Reclamation Project.

This was followed by an appropriation of P150 million, from a loan with the Philippine Veterans Bank, as full payment for the holdout loan previously with Land Bank of the Philippines.

The city council also approved a P130-million allocation for the rehabilitation of Unit II of the Carbon public market. Of this amount, P120 million will be taken from a loan with the Philippine Veterans Bank and the remainder from the retained operating surplus of the city’s market operations.

The most heavily argued appropriation was the P8.5-million financial aid for the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

Opposition councilors Danilo Fernan and Carmelita Piramide doubted the intention of such a budget, which will be placed under the joint healthcare program of Mayor Tomas Osmeña and south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco.

But city administrator Juan Saul Montecillo, when called to explain, said the amount will be in exchange for the countrywide development fund which Cuenco has allocated for the P17-million, road-widening project on N. Escario street.

Fernan, however, argued that the amount, already with the Department of Public Works and Highways, is not enough since the road right-of-way claims alone will cost the city some P17.4 million, while the road-widening project needs P60 million.

Later in the deliberation, a P5.6-million allocation was included for gender and development projects for women and children in the city.

Aside from the supplemental budget, the council appropriated an additional P500,000 for the SARS crisis management team. This amount will be used for the purchase of SARS prevention equipment and kits, charged against funds from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

Earlier, the SARS crisis team received 376,000 from the Pagcor fund and an additional P5 million from the calamity fund. — Freeman News Service