THE Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) is asking Mayor Tomas Osmeña to release the P20 million budget that was approved by the City Council during the time of former mayor Michael Rama.
Senior Supt. Royina Garma, CCPO director, said the budget has not yet been given to them.
The police official said she saw the budget for CCPO while attending the Cebu City Peace and Order Council meeting early this week. She hopes it will be given before the year ends.
“I saw in the report that there is an amount allotted for the training, amount allotted for the improvement of police station, allowances etc. and even for other activities of the Philippine National Police but we didn’t receive any,” she said.
Sought for comment about the matter, Councilor Margarita Osmeña said Garma should specify what allocation she is referring to.
Councilor Osmeña, who is the chairman of the council’s committee on budget and finance, said there are continuing appropriations for the police that were approved in the previous years that were not utilized until now.
“If it’s the continuing appropriation that we approved in the prior years that has not been utilized, then it’s still available as long as it’s for capital outlay,” she said.
Councilor Osmeña, however, said that the funds will not be directly downloaded to CCPO since they have to submit certain requirements also.
It includes the program of works and estimates for their projects, among others
Although the P20 million was not yet released, Garma said that CCPO still receives support from the City by providing them vehicles, gasoline and allowances.
But she said there is still a lot of money in the peace and order funds that remain unspent.
During the previous administration, the City allocated P15 million for the training of the Special Weapons and Tactics team.
Another P3 million was set aside for the procurement of ammunition.
But these allocations went for naught after Rama was defeated by Osmeña in the 2016 elections.
Garma denied she is requesting Osmeña to release the funds, but clarified that the mayor should give the amount intended for CCPO as they will use it for their programs and projects.
Meanwhile, Garma said she relieved nine traffic police officers as they have become complacent in their duties, relying on Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) to do the gathering of details.
Garma said traffic investigators should be in the scene of the vehicular accident to conduct investigation.
The police official said some traffic police officers in the city have become lazy, depending on CCTO personnel, whose main job is to manage traffic.
She said the relieved officers will be replaced with new ones who are now undergoing training. KAL, RVC