THE Office of the Governor, under Governor Pamela Baricuatro, has augmented the budget for the Cebu Province Grants Intended for Tertiary Students (CP-Gifts) program by P75 million to cover unpaid allowances due to a higher-than-expected number of scholars.
Cebu Province Assistant Administrator Aldwin Empaces said that when the current administration assumed office, obligations for CP-Gifts had already exceeded the allotted funds because the number of beneficiaries went beyond initial projections.
“The number of scholars exceeded what was expected under the approved budget,” he said.
Empaces explained that weak monitoring partly contributed to the shortfall, allowing billings to accumulate beyond the approved budget. Some submitted billings were already higher than the funds available, resulting in delayed payments.
Cebu Provincial Board Member Raymond Calderon, author of the CP-Gifts ordinance, said the program’s approved budget for 2025 was P50 million, while the allocation for 2026 has been increased to P150 million.
CP-Gifts beneficiaries receive a monthly stipend of P2,000, or P10,000 per semester, released through Landbank ATM accounts.
Delayed allowances
In a Dec. 17 report by SunStar Cebu, scholars appealed to the Provincial Government to address year-long delays in the release of allowances covering the 2024 and 2025 semesters.
Some beneficiaries reported waiting from five months to one year and said CP-Gifts’ focal persons attributed the delay to administrative issues such as no budget, pending signatures, changes in leadership, and batch payroll processing.
Empaces clarified that while the CP-Gifts program is under the Office of the Governor, Provincial Board members endorse scholars and submit required documents from their districts. Once requirements are complete, the executive office processes the billings.
To address the backlog, the Office of the Governor is processing the P75 million augmentation, allowing delayed payments to proceed.
Empaces said most obligations are already lined up for payment, with releases expected before the end of the year or by the first quarter of January 2026.
He emphasized that CP-Gifts scholars are beneficiaries of the Cebu Provincial Government, not individual board members, and assured that stricter monitoring and clearer controls will be implemented to prevent future delays. / CDF