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Monday, February 23, 2004
Editorial: Season of doleouts
WHAT a difference a year makes.
In 2003, the Cebu City Government operated on a “skin-and-bone” budget of P1.3 billion. Mayor Tomas Osmeña applied the same principle of earmarking sums only for recurring costs in the previous year.
But in 2004, City Hall made a leap of P700 million to draw up the biggest budget ever in the past decade: P2.034 billion.
The mayor is seeking reelection for his second term this year.
What a difference election year brings.
Critics have warned Cebuanos about having a false sense of optimism because close to P500 million, approximately 25 percent of the 2004 budget, will be for debt servicing.
The administration has said that despite its debts, the City will have enough money because of improved efficiency in its tax collection.
Claiming he is the only mayor to have collected franchise taxes from utilities and telecommunication firms, Osmeña said his administration can carry out what he vowed during his July 2003 State of the City Address: return Cebu to being “second to none.”
The mayor’s game plan? Doleouts.
Contrasting with the P1,000 extra Christmas bonus given to City Hall workers last year, P5,000 will be given to every employee when the City celebrates the 67th Charter Day celebration this Feb. 24, three months shy of the May 10 elections. For 2004’s extra cash gifts to City Hall employees, P23.5 million was charged to the supplemental budget.
Compared to last year’s P163.86 million, P249.5 million has been appropriated for the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) for 2004.
Spelling out the priorities chargeable to the City’s Local Development Plan, the AIP is carved up this year, as follows: 43 percent for barangay infrastructure; 23 percent, roads and bridges; 22 percent, maintenance and operating expenditures (MOOE); 11 percent, drainage projects; and one percent, lot acquisition.
The mayor has lashed out at critics who have decried that he is using public funds as his war chest for courting votes. But aside from the timing of the spending, his State of the City Address last July included an admission that he reported about achievements, which “counted” with Cebuanos: ”When I implement infrastructure projects, that’s politics. I want people to enjoy that politics is good government.”
As he ran on a platform promising upliftment of the urban poor, the mayor’s governance should be appraised in terms of his accomplishments in this area.
The P249.5-million AIP inserts P10 million, equivalent to four percent, for citywide developmental projects to be undertaken by accredited nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and people’s organizations.
According to Tessie Fernandez, chairperson of the 56 NGOs sitting in the Local Development Council, only a few NGOs have yet submitted proposals to avail themselves of the 2004 allocation. Among those whose proposals were covered by the 2003 LDF, only three have yet received the first tranche of assistance. City Hall’s processing has disheartened NGOs, which see a need to untangle the red tape so their development plans do not get derailed.
While P259,000 has been allotted for the MOOE of the City Government’s housing programs, P5.10 million is budgeted for its anti-squatting program.
City Planning and Development Coordinator Nigel Paul Villarete has said that this order of priorities reflects the heavier workload of the Squatters Prevention and Encroachment Elimination Division compared to the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor. The latter has been called by the mayor as a “failure” for its inability to collect monthly amortizations from the City’s socialized housing beneficiaries.
In the area of gender and development, the City has allocated this year P15 million, representing six percent of the AIP. While the City won a special citation from the 2003 Gawad Galing Pook for gender-sensitive local governance, it has yet to be seen how it will mainstream violence against women as an issue of governance.
Asked last July about his accomplishments for the poor, the mayor had pointed out to reporters the wall displaying his plaques.
Nearing the end of this term, the mayor should realize that governance is not just the tale of the tape. More than plaques and doleouts, governance is measured by the participation, access and accountability given to all stakeholders in all levels of the City’s political process.
(February 23, 2004 issue)
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