CEBU City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia is asking an additional budget of P635 million from the City Council to cover Charter Day bonuses for the City Hall employees, road asphalting, the construction of eighth to 10th floors of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and livelihood programs.
In a press conference on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, Garcia said the requested funds under his proposed Supplemental Budget 1 (SB1) for road asphalting was over P140 million, P210 for the CCMC and P100 million for livelihood programs.
While Garcia did not mention to reporters the figure he proposed for bonuses, it can be deduced from this list that around P185 million would be the budget for the Charter Day bonuses.
Garcia said if the SB1 is approved, the City’s regular and casual employees would receive P25,000 each; while P5,000 will be given to job order personnel.
Garcia said he already signed the SB1 and submitted it to the City Council last Friday, Feb. 7.
In a text message to SunStar, Councilor Noel Wenceslao, who heads the finance committee, said the council has yet to receive Garcia’s proposed SB1.
Asphalting
In justifying the need for additional funds, Garcia said that since the budget for road asphalting was slashed from the proposed P240 million in the 2025 budget to P100 million, his P140 million request under the SB1 would again show to the council the need to asphalt the city’s roads.
“Many residents are happy about the road asphalting projects that were done. There are just so many roads and we have much to do. That is why the asphalting budget for this year is not enough,” Garcia said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
CCMC
On the proposed P210 million inclusion to complete CCMC’s eighth to 10th floors, Garcia said the amount was needed since the Cebu Medical Society (CMS) has not turned over funds amounting to P205 million to the City Government.
Garcia had earlier appealed to the CMS to turn over to the City’s coffers the P205 million given by private donors that were intended for the CCMC.
The P205 million fund was downloaded to a trust fund through the CMS as a response to then mayor Michael Rama’s “investment seeking” initiatives back in 2023 for the completion of the CCMC.
Garcia said the CMS has failed to act on his request.
“I am hoping that the council will approve it because the donors are no longer clear, and CMS is also not clear. I don’t know why they won’t turn over that money to me. Maybe it would be better if they just show me the bankbook to prove that the money is really still with CMS,” said Garcia.
Garcia said his proposed P210 million from the SB1 will be used to complete the hospital structure; while the donors’ funds if turned over by the CMS will be used to purchase hospital equipment and build divisions for the three floors.
Livelihood
Meanwhile, an additional P100 million will be needed to extend help to small businesses, Garcia said.
Garcia said that during the Sinulog 2025 events last month, many street vendors were glad that their products had sold out.
“I’m asking again for the livelihood program this year because I saw going around that a lot of small businesses really need seed capital,” he said. / JPS