Mayor Garcia disappointed over SB 1 cut

Although “grateful,” Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia admitted disappointment over the reported consensus of the City Council on the Supplemental Budget (SB) 1, which scrapped his proposal for the livelihood program.

- Iris Hazel Mascardo

He believed that politics played a role in the deliberation.

“Disappointed, of course... I think and believe that there is a political reason behind their removal of the livelihood program,” Garcia told reporters yesterday, a day after the deliberation and approval of the trimmed SB 1.

Last Wednesday during the council’s regular session, Councilor Noel Wenceslao, Committee Chairman on Budget and Finance, presented the report and recommendations based on the committee’s assessment of the proposed SB 1.

In his report, he said that these findings were derived from the second wave of budget hearings, after they resolved that SB 1 should be resubmitted by the executive department for the recommended amendments.

Among the salient points and amendments that Wenceslao highlighted was the alleged “lack of interest” on the part of the Office of the Mayor as the implementing office for the livelihood program amounting to P88 million.