Cebu province distributes P376 million to LGUs affected by lockdown

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu provincial government will begin distributing financial aid to cities and towns under its jurisdiction on Thursday, April 2, to help grapple them with the coronavirus-prompted lockdown – or enhanced community quarantine – here.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the initial outlay is P376 million and it will be sourced from the province’s P12-billion 2020 budget. 

The financial aid will go to the municipalities and will be distributed based on population and municipality ranking. 

“I have instructed all our department heads that all prices in the procurement of the items that we are distributing to our local government units should be posted,” Garcia told reporters on Wednesday, April 1.

“The poorer LGUs, we’ll give more. The richer ones, we will give less,” Garcia said in Cebuano.

Here is a breakdown of the budget per classification:

• 1st to 4th class cities – P50 per person;
• 5th to 6th class cities – P100;
• 1st class muncipalities – P100;
• 2nd and 3rd class municipalities – P150;
• 4th to 5th class municipalities – P200.

The governor said she preferred to issue checks to the LGUs instead of providing supplies so that local chiefs can purchase relief goods based on their needs.

Garcia said that the price ceiling of essential goods imposed by the Department of Trade and Industry and adopted by the Provincial Price Monitoring Council should be followed.

Cebu – which currently has at least 28 cases of coronavirus cases – is on lockdown until April 28. – Rappler.com