Cebu City Council Okays PHP15.8M For Comelec Polls Preparation

The Cebu City Council approved on Wednesday a resolution allocating PHP15.8-million for the preparation of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 9 polls.

Cebu City Councilor Margarita Osmeña, in her approved resolution, said the PHP15.8-million will be used to defray election related expenses, such as food, accommodation and honoraria for the training of the third members of the clustered precincts and retraining of the board of election inspectors (BEI) in the city.

The amount will be charged under city-sponsored activities, which had an approved budget last year of PHP42 million, because the city is operating on a reenacted budget,

The allocation was based on the request earlier submitted by Cebu City North District Election Officer Marchel Sarno and South District Election Officer Edwin Cadungog.

The request said the PHP15.8 million will pay for the poll body’s maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE), which include a two-day training of the third member of every clustered precincts.

They said there are 837 clustered precincts and the city will be spending PHP2,600 for the third member’s two-day hotel accommodation and PHP1,000 honoraria at PHP500 per day or a total of more than PHP3 million.

The training will be divided into 14 batches.

The fund will also cover for the retraining of the 2,511 BEI’s at three for each of the 837 clustered precincts.

The city will also be spending PHP2,600 for their hotelaccommodation and PHP1,000 for their honoraria for a total of more than PHP9 million.

The retraining of the BEI’s will be divided into 62 batches.

The rest of the budget will be used to pay for the hotelaccommodation and honoraria of two speakers the Comelec will be inviting for every batch of training for the third members and retraining of the BEIs, educational supplies and materials, mock elections and expenses for public hearing.(PNA) FFC/EB/EDS