THE money allocation for the purchase of packed meals for frontliners is in peril.
The Cebu City Council has deferred action on the proposal to continue giving food packs worth P100 to each frontliner when on duty. The total amount being sought for approval is P40 million.
Recipients of packed meals are police personnel manning checkpoints, doctors and nurses at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and staff and patients at the New Normal Oasis for Adaptation and a Home (Noah) Complex.
The resolution sponsored by City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia was filed before the council on Dec. 2, 2020.
Waste of money
City Councilor Nestor Archival questioned the budget, saying the council already approved a P160 million budget for the same purpose.
“We already spent around P160 million for this... for me this is just wasting money,” he said.
Garcia said the P160 million was approved in March yet and there is a need to augment it.
Garcia said when the city was under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) for about three months, the City “was feeding 15,000 mouths.”
“The P160 million has been consumed. It has already been eight months,” he said. “It’s (a) pandemic, it’s not an ordinary time. They’re doing extraordinary things and they’re risking their lives.”
Archival said the council has to “be careful” in approving another budget, adding that the P160 million has not even been liquidated.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama clarified that the council is not cutting the food provision for frontliners. He said there are just some concerns that need to be addressed first before approving another budget.
“That’s a misnomer, misunderstanding. We will definitely be addressing, naa lay mga (but there are other) concerns... we’ve been wanting that liquidation issue addressed,” Rama said.
The P40 million was a reprogrammed amount under the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
Rama said he is willing to call a special session to discuss the matter.
Impact
Meanwhile, Col. Josefino Ligan, director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said taking away the budget allocation for meals of police personnel assigned in quarantine control points could have an impact on precautionary measures against the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Ligan said he’d be forced to remove them from their current assignments.
He said police personnel manning quarantine control points are from the Crisis Response Battalion and are currently housed at the Cebu City Sports Center.
Providing them with meals is meant to prevent them from leaving their posts, he said.
“They can’t cook in the sports center so they can’t bring packed meals to their assignments,” Ligan said in Cebuano.
Ligan will provide a report to the Police Regional Office 7 regarding the possible removal of meal allowances for frontliners in Cebu City.
For now, Ligan said CCPO personnel will continue to man border control points.
Ligan said those assigned in quarantine checkpoints have contributed to lowering the number of Covid-19 cases in the city by preventing the number of people from going out of their homes unless they had essential business. (JJL, AYB / JKV)