AS of June 30, 2022, Cagayan de Oro City is facing a concerning financial situation. The City Accounting Office has disclosed that the city holds only around P103 million in funds, while carrying a substantial P2.9 billion debt.
Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando "Klarex" Uy even on Monday finally spoke up against claims made by his predecessor, former mayor Oscar Moreno that he was not paying the city hall's contractors and suppliers on time.
Mayor Uy pointed out that he never complained about the city's low funds when he came into office.
According to the City Accounting Office, as of June 30, 2022, the city's main fund had only about 103 million pesos in it.
Also, the city's available cash had decreased significantly from over 1.3 billion pesos in 2018 to just over 356 million pesos when he started.
However, by the end of 2022, the city had a surplus of over 872 million pesos, which was a lot more than the previous year's surplus.
Mayor Uy explained to the press that when he started managing the city hall, he didn't focus too much on the city's debts.
Instead, he concentrated on helping the city get through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite this, the former mayor accused him of not paying the city's contractors and suppliers.
He assured everyone that his team would do everything possible to settle all the city's debts, which were almost 2.97 billion pesos as of June 30, 2022, the day he started his term.
Mayor Uy shared figures from the City Accounting Office showing that between June and December 2022, the city paid nearly 192 million pesos to suppliers for the previous two years.
From January to November 2023, his administration paid about 744 million pesos for goods and services supplied in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
In summary, from the end of June 2022 to the end of December 2022, the city paid suppliers about 936 million pesos.
The city also made payments totaling 1.5 billion pesos for construction projects from June to December 2022.
Mayor Uy encouraged any suppliers or contractors who were still owed money to contact him so that he could find ways to pay them back.
On January 3, 2024, Xavier University asked the mayor to pay about 7.8 million pesos for using their dormitories as Covid-19 quarantine spaces.
Mayor Uy questioned why the bill was not paid when the city seemed to have sufficient funds to cover these expenses.
Vice Mayor Jocelyn Rodriguez said she felt validated that these financial issues were now public because she had previously wanted to know how Covid-19 funds were being used.
Mayor Uy's political spokesperson BenCyrus Ellorin asserted that the mayor's question is valid because the previous administration had disregarded the public's appeals for additional assistance.
However, Mayor Moreno's administration clarified at that time that it is more appropriate for the national government to handle aid, as the local government's focus is on enhancing the city's critical care capabilities to combat Covid-19.
The Department of Health calculated the Critical Care Utilization Rate (CCUR) based on the available ICU beds, isolation units, and testing capacity.
Ellorin, a former communications consultant for Moreno, stated that the national government is responsible for providing aid, while the city government allocates resources to protect and treat the public from Covid-19.
He also questioned how there could be unpaid bills for isolation units when most of the financial aid from the national government and local allocations was supposed to be used to improve critical care capabilities.
