Carillo: City Hall employees deserved calamity aid

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, one of the respondents of the administrative case over the alleged misuse of public funds for calamity victims, countered allegations that City Hall officials fabricated information to grant the release of the calamity assistance in 2013.

During the investigation of the Department of the Interior and Local Government-7, Carillo testified being one of the legislators who approved the passage of two budget ordinances allocating more than P87 million to 4,200 city officials and employees as recipients.

Carillo, taking the witness stand, asserted that the elected officials —including the city mayor, vice mayor and city councilors— are qualified to receive the P20,000 calamity aid since they are considered as regular employees of the city.

He testified that the city mayor’s proposal was originally P10,000 but Councilor Sisinio Andales, during the deliberation of the budget ordinance, proposed to increase it to P20,000.

He said the information to grant was not fabricated since the City Hall workforce also needed the calamity aid after they were affected by successive calamities two years ago when Cebu City was placed under the state of calamity.

It was complainant Reymelio Delute who said the release of over P87 million was questionable and constituted grave misconduct and abuse of authority because the recipients were not direct victims of the magnitude 7.2 earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

Basing on the minutes on the deliberation of the proposed measure, Carillo said it was recorded that the elected officials were “part of the regular employees” aside from the casual or hired employees entitled to claim the calamity aid.

Carillo said the minutes during the deliberation are considered part of the ordinance after Delute challenged Carillo to point out a specific provision of the ordinance stating that the elected officials are qualified to receive the aid.

He further explained that prior to the budget proposal for City Hall’s calamity aid, they have been extending financial assistance to several disaster-affected municipalities and cities around the Visayas region through the city’s Big Brother Program.   (FREEMAN)