MORE than P400 million in disaster trust funds remains stuck at the Cebu Provincial Board (PB), delaying relief for earthquake and typhoon survivors.
The P473.58 million fund will be used to provide assistance to victims of the earthquake in September 2025 and typhoon Tino in November, procurement of mobile kitchens, mobile clinics and a sea ambulance.
Assistant Provincial Administrator Aldwin Empaces said the delays stalled key interventions that should have started last year.
The Executive Department first endorsed the funding measure in November. However, PB Member Celestino Martinez III returned the initial proposal because it included funds from 2020. He noted that under Republic Act (RA) 10121, unspent disaster funds automatically revert to the general fund of the Provincial Government after five years.
Revised proposal
Gov. Pamela Baricuatro pushed back against this interpretation, arguing the funds were still valid when her office first submitted the plan.
“We are aware of the five year expiry period of a particular unexpended fund, thus, utilization is on a first-in, first-out basis,” Baricuatro said in a letter. Despite her defense, the Executive
Department eventually agreed to remove the 2020 funds and drafted a revised plan to appease the board.
This revised plan faced further hurdles when Martinez returned it again on Feb. 9, citing mismatched amounts in the supporting documents. He also pointed out that the provincial budget officer prepared the plan instead of the disaster office. During these back-and-forth exchanges, Martinez said the PB prioritized the annual budget deliberations and raised separate questions about the need to buy a sea ambulance.
Memo confusion
A new memorandum from Vice Gov. Glenn Anthony Soco further complicated the final resubmission. Soco signed the memo on March 25, requiring all documents submitted from the Office of the Governor to the PB must bear the governor’s signature. However, the Executive Department only obtained an electronic copy of the new rule from the PB’s secretariat on April 6, but Baricuatro’s chief of staff, James Canoy, had already signed the latest proposal on March 30.
According to Empaces, this lack of proper transmission caused more processing delays, although the PB later accepted the documents. Reporters tried to get a copy of the memo on April 8, but staff members said the absent chief of staff held the only copy.
Frustrated by the timeline, Empaces questioned the PB’s continued inaction.
“The question is, why was it not tackled in November, why was it not tackled in December... which roughly gave you six weeks to tackle it,” he said. / CDF