Some barangays councils in the city are hesitant to release the 10% of the barangay funds intended to youth councils, thus hindering the conduct of youth activities.
Councilor Jaffar Marohomsalic, the city’s Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) federation chair, aired this sentiment during the city council’s regular session last Tuesday.
Marohomsalic raised the issue on the disbursement of SK funds with the end goal of improving the existing guidelines.
He also raised issues to improve the existing guidelines on the compensation of SK officials.
“We are encouraging barangay captains to implement the 10% allocation for their respective SK councils,” Marohomsalic said in an interview. The young councilor said more than 50 out of 182 barangays in the city failed to release the SK budget.
He also said that out of 182 barangays, only 40 have so far opened accounts for SK.
Based on RA 10742 (the SK reform act of 2015), Marohomsalic said “SK should have our own separate account where the 10% allotment should be deposited.”
The youth representative in the City Council said he has no idea why barangay officials are not releasing the fund.
He pointed out that the SK councils must be able to disburse money from their own accounts pursuant to the provisions of the law that provides for the autonomy of the SK federations in handling their yearly budget.
“This resolution (I propose) is to encourage the barangay councils to release the funds in order to help the SK Councils. After all, the SK exists to help their constituents,” he said.
He added that the SK Federation is eyeing to have a dialogue with the Association of Barangay Captains on the matter.
