CEBU, Philippines — The wife of a winning puppeteer in this year’s Sinulog Grand Parade sought Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s help yesterday after her husband received only P20,000 of the announced P30,000 prize.
Analyn Cuyos, who lives in Barangay Kamputhaw, said they have not received the additional P10,000 until now despite repeated follow-ups with the Sinulog Foundation Inc.
Analyn is the wife of Ryan Cuyos, whose puppet won third prize in the grand parade. Ryan has been joining the puppet category of Sinulog for three years but only clinched an award this year.
She told reporters that when her husband received the prize, he wondered why only P20,000 was given to them when the amount stipulated in the certificate was P30,000.
“Gusto ko mahibaw naa ba mi madawat ug kanus-a kay wala pa gyud. Sige ingon tawagan mi unya wala man gyud,” Analyn said.
Analyn said she was unable to get the name of the person she approached at the SFI office.
She hopes that with her appearance at the mayor’s office yesterday, their concern will be finally addressed.
At his press conference, Osmeña said he will wait for the couple to file a formal complaint before acting on the matter.
He assured though that if missing prize is confirmed, the winner will get the lacking P10,000. He added that he doesn’t want that the good image of Sinulog to be tarnished.
“I will not allow anything like this to happen because this will ruin our reputation… Mauwaw gyud ko sa mga tawo if something like that happens. Bisan gamay lang nga suwat, just give me something to work with,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña only came to know of the incident when reporters asked for his comment during the conference.
Separately, SFI Executive Director Ricky Ballesteros told The FREEMAN that the people in charge with the prizes were not aware with the new guidelines given to the participants.
He said the personnel in charge were from the Cebu City Hall.
“In the guidelines that were printed and given to the participants were the new prizes which were already increased since we required them to pay registration fees. The prize in charge was not informed so they still used the old prizes,” Ballesteros said.
Ballesteros believes that the city government is now processing the remaining P10,000. He emphasized that he was not blaming the city government on the issue.
“They used the old prizes but after the awarding, the in-charge from City Hall promised to process the balance through the office of Councilor Dave Tumulak. Ang balance ra ila wala nakuha,” he said.
Tumulak said it was not his office that was responsible for the prizes but Ballesteros and Jess Anthony dela Cruz, the Sinulog 2018 program director.
“Ang gihatag nila sa accounting, gihatag list of prizes ang karaan sa accounting. Ang updated nga list wala mahatag sa iyahang secretary nga gihinganlan og Michael but we will assist them,” Tumulak said.
Dela Cruz said the City Accounting Office is now processing for the release of the lacking P10,000.
“Kinahanglan nako i-file ang differential, pangitaon ang voucher sa Sinulog, photocopy sa puppeteers then ipasulod sa accounting. Hopefully, mahuman before the end of May,” he said. —/KBQ (FREEMAN)