THE Cebu City Council on Friday, Dec. 12. 2025, approved Supplemental Budget 3 (SB3) amounting to more than P1.64 billion, clearing the way for the release of employee bonuses and the implementation of key programs that had been on hold pending budget approval.
The approval, made during a special session, allows the City Government to move forward with long-pending expenditures, including bonuses for thousands of City Hall workers, hospital-related projects, housing and post-typhoon rehabilitation programs.
In a letter dated Thursday, Dec. 11, Mayor Nestor Archival forwarded a copy to the office of Acting Vice Mayor Winston Pepito, where he wrote regarding the SB3 calendar year 2025 for the General Fund, City of Cebu, to cover urgent and necessary expenses.
“Supporting this budget are funds as certified by the city treasurer and city accountant. This proposed SB3 is hereby certified as urgent,” the letter states.
The council session was presided over by Pepito, with councilors adopting the committee report endorsing SB3 after Archival certified the measure as urgent.
The P1.64-billion supplemental budget was intended to cover obligations and priority expenditures that could no longer be deferred and were not sufficiently provided for under the original 2025 Annual Budget.
Among the expenditures authorized under SB-3 are:
Personnel services, including the release of employee bonuses and other benefits for thousands of Cebu City Hall workers.
Maintenance and other operating expenses of various city departments and offices.
Capital outlays for practical, urgent and ongoing projects.
Programs and activities necessary to ensure the continued delivery of basic services to city residents.
Councilor Dave Tumulak, chair of the committee on budget and finance, moved for SB3’s approval, citing provisions under the Local Government Code and the Budget Operations Manual that permit immediate action once an appropriation is declared urgent by the mayor.
Tumulak said during the session that the measure was certified as urgent by the mayor, allowing the council to act on it immediately.
The motion was approved without objection.
Ahead of the SB3 vote, the council also approved the realignment of about P1.3 billion in Local Development Fund allocations from projects dating as far back as 2011.
City Treasurer Emma Villarete explained that the funds involved either unimplemented projects that were no longer feasible due to rising costs or savings from projects that had already been completed.
Some items, she added, were lump-sum allocations without identified project sites and could no longer proceed because they overlapped with national government projects.
With SB3 now approved, the City Administration can proceed with processing employee bonuses, a long-standing issue that had drawn concern from City Hall workers in recent weeks.
However, Tumulak clarified that while funds for bonuses are already embedded in the supplemental budget, the City is still waiting for guidance from national agencies on how the incentive should be classified.
“We are waiting for the memorandum from the Civil Service Commission, the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) and the Office of the President to clarify what kind of bonus this actually is,” he said, referring to whether it would fall under a Service Recognition Incentive or another category.
The City is also aligning its implementation with Administrative Order 39, issued on Dec. 11, which authorizes a separate one-time gratuity of up to P7,000 for contract-of-service and job order workers nationwide.
Beyond personnel benefits, SB3 channels funding to several major priorities, including P509.8 million for the construction of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), P200 million for lot acquisition for housing projects in northern and southern barangays and P663 million for recovery and rehabilitation infrastructure in typhoon-affected areas
Health-related allocations also include funding for CCMC, Guba Hospital, Bonbon Hospital and the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor, while economic services receive support for city market operations.
A P58.37-million scholarship program is likewise included in the approved supplemental budget.
The approval of SB3 effectively ends a prolonged legislative and administrative delay that had affected both city workers and service delivery, allowing the executive branch to fully utilize the more than P1.64-billion allocation for its intended purposes. / CAV