THE City Council of Cagayan de Oro approved on Monday, March 30, the supplemental budget amounting to more than P650 million which will be used to combat the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) threat.
According to City Budget Officer lawyer Percy Salazar, of the total P658,448,867, P500 million of it will be used as a standby fund if in case the city reaches the worst-case scenario, while P50 million will be used for infrastructure such as putting up isolation and quarantine areas in the city.
A part of the P500 million is the cash assistance based on the Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 1 series of 2020 by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Agriculture, Department of Finance, Department of Budget and Management, and Department of the Interior and Local Government.
According to the joint memorandum, through its Emergency Subsidy Program, the government will cash or non-cash subsidy of 18 million household beneficiaries in the amount of at least P5,000 to a maximum of P8,000 per month for two months for basic food, medicine, and toiletries.
Meanwhile, the P108,448,687 supplemental budget will be for other economic sector projects not related to Covid-19 which were approved in the previous City Council sessions, City Councilor Ian Mark Nacaya said.
On Monday, the majority of the members of the City Council approved the more than P650 million supplemental budget proposed by the City Mayor Oscar Moreno, however, City Councilor Jocelyn Rodriguez voted against it while City Councilor Lordan Suan abstained.