Tomas to host party for SK leaders
To remove animosities among the 80 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) chairpersons in Cebu City, Mayor Tomas Osmeña will host a gathering for them next week.
Osmeña said it is time to set aside politics among the young leaders because the SK Federation elections have ended.
“It’s just a social just to get to know each other to reduce the animosity. That’s the way the young people feel. They don’t want to be like us, puros mga palaaway,” the mayor told reporters.
Last Tuesday, majority of the 80 barangay SK chairpersons have elected Jessica Resch of San Nicolas Proper as the SKF president.
Osmeña said he will shoulder the expenses, assuring that there will be no pledging of allegiance to join his group, Bando OsmeñaPundok Kauswagan, because the elections are over.
“And I think that’s the right attitude to take. Humana ang away. They want to make friends, fine. Let them make friends. That’s good for me, that’s good for the city,” he said.
The gathering, which will happen next week, will be the venue where SK chairpersons can discuss among themselves the programs and projects that they want to implement in their barangays, Osmeña said.
Each SK office of 80 barangays will get P1 million from the city government, as promised by the mayor.
Osmeña said the P80 million for all barangays will be included in the next year’s annual budget.
With this, he said the young leaders will have more time to discuss projects and programs that will be implemented in their respective barangays.
“The whole idea is to let them plan. Let them make common presentation. Let them copy each other’s plan. Let them improve on the plan of others. I just want to broaden their minds on development, not on politics because I think that’s what the people want,” he said.
The mayor said his main reason for giving cash assistance to SKs in the city is because there are some barangay captains that will “steal” the allocated budget for the youths by allocating it to purchase vehicles for the barangays, among others.
It is mandated by law that all barangays should allocate 10 percent of their annual budget for the SK.
Osmeña said he wants the young leaders to move on their own that is why he is giving them financial support.
“We will allow them to move on their own so that the barangay captain cannot threaten them because I will protect them, even the barangay captains are BOPK, I will protect them,” he said.
On the issue that the opposition party is using the seal of the city government in the invitation for the mass oath taking, Osmeña said he will not file charges even if there is no authority to use the seal of the city government.
Yesterday, Barug Team Rama-PDP Laban held their mass oath taking among the elected barangay officials and SK officials.
“Let’s spare the youth,” the mayor said.