THE release of nearly P4 million in emergency funding for Barangay Umapad has hit a standstill. This delay is leaving many community workers without pay and making it harder for the village to provide essential services to its residents.
Barangay Captain Reb Cortes explained that the neighborhood cannot access this "supplemental budget" until its main 2026 annual budget is officially approved. Currently, the annual budget is stuck because several required documents, such as the Gender and Development plan, are not yet finished.
According to rules from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), a barangay must have a completed annual budget before it can ask for extra funds.
"We need a complete budget before we can request a supplemental," Cortes said. He clarified that trying to skip this step would be illegal and would only cause more delays for the community.
The delay is hitting the pockets of local workers the hardest. Out of the P4 million requested, about P2.4 million is set aside just to pay salaries that have been owed for several months.
The situation has become so complicated that 10 program workers had to be temporarily removed from the current payroll. Captain Cortes did this to make sure the rest of the staff could still get paid on time without being dragged down by paperwork issues.
I was worried about the situation, so I personally informed the ten affected workers,” he said. “I told them that once concurrence is approved, hopefully by February, their salaries from January will be released. I have already reappointed them.”
The budget process has also been slowed down by leadership issues and disagreements within the council. A recent suspension of the Committee on Appointments has made it difficult to get the necessary signatures for routine tasks.
Additionally, during budget talks, some council members tried to move money away from programs like the Anti-Drug Abuse Council to use for official bonuses. Captain Cortes fought to have those funds returned to their original purpose.
Despite the red tape, Barangay Umapad is still operating using its proposed budget. Some workers previously received "lump-sum" back pay in September to cover work they did earlier in the year, and the Captain hopes to repeat this once the new budget is cleared.
Cortes’ main goal now is to finish all the DILG requirements as quickly as possible. Once the paperwork is complete and the council signs off, the P4 million can be released to pay the workers and restore full services to the people of Umapad.