Cebu City Council Approves P800.54M Supplemental Budget, Retains P35M Driver Fuel Subsidy

The Cebu City Council approved a trimmed Supplemental Budget 1 for 2026 worth P800,541,721.40 on April 28, retaining a contested P35 million fuel subsidy for public utility and transport drivers while cutting more than P160 million from the mayor's original spending plan after committee review.

The Details

The council gave final approval to the package on April 28, 2026, following a review by the city's Committee on Budget and Finance that pruned the original request from roughly P964 million down to P800,541,721.40, according to Cebu Daily News and SunStar Cebu. The committee justified the reductions in pointed terms. "The revisions were necessary to ensure transparency, accountability, and prudent use of public funds," the committee said, according to SunStar Cebu.

Two allocations bore the heaviest cuts. SunStar Cebu reported that the committee trimmed P100 million from waste-hauling funds and halved the proposed budget for legislative building repairs from P50 million to P25 million. Together those two reductions account for the majority of the P163.65 million gap between the mayor's original ask and the approved total.

The driver fuel subsidy, which had drawn scrutiny during budget deliberations, was preserved in full. The P35 million program is intended to provide direct fuel assistance to public utility and transport drivers across the city. City officials told Cebu Daily News and SunStar Cebu they expect between 10,000 and 15,000 transport workers to benefit from the program, though that figure is contingent on a validation process that has not yet been completed.

Mayor Nestor Archival, who first introduced the subsidy when he presented the supplemental budget in March 2026, was clear about its character. "This is a local initiative separate from national assistance," Archival said, according to SunStar Cebu, distinguishing the city-funded program from any parallel national government aid schemes for transport workers.

The supplemental budget also retained P29 million for the Teachers Upgrading Program, which helps public school teachers in Cebu City finance graduate studies, Cebu Daily News and SunStar Cebu reported. That allocation cleared the committee review without reduction.

The fuel subsidy will not move to disbursement automatically. City officials said the program must first clear a multi-agency validation process involving the Department of Social Welfare and Services, accredited transport groups, and barangay units, according to SunStar Cebu. The validation is designed to build a verified beneficiary list and prevent duplicate claims or misallocation of the P35 million fund.

Context

The supplemental budget had its origins partly in an emergency. Mayor Archival originally sought a supplemental budget of about P981.9 million, a figure driven largely by higher waste-hauling costs following the January 8, 2026 collapse of the Binaliw landfill, which killed 36 people, SunStar Cebu reported. That disaster forced the city to find alternative disposal arrangements, pushing operational costs significantly beyond what the regular annual budget had set aside.

The driver subsidy itself went through several iterations in scope. Early city discussions placed the number of eligible beneficiaries at roughly 3,000 to 4,000 registered drivers. Later deliberations expanded that estimate to as many as 10,000 to 15,000 transport workers spanning multiple sectors, depending on the outcome of the validation process, according to SunStar Cebu. The wider range reflects the diversity of Cebu City's transport network, which includes jeepney operators, tricycle drivers, and other public utility vehicle operators.

Concerns about the subsidy's implementation framework surfaced before the council vote. SunStar Cebu reported questions about the absence of formal rules governing how the program would be administered, a gap that city officials addressed by committing to the validation process through the Department of Social Welfare and Services, transport groups, and barangays.

What's Next

The P35 million driver subsidy moves into an implementation phase pending the outcome of the multi-agency validation exercise. City officials confirmed to Cebu Daily News and SunStar Cebu that the Department of Social Welfare and Services, transport groups, and barangay units will together determine the final list of eligible drivers and establish the distribution mechanism before any disbursements begin. The actual beneficiary count will not be confirmed until that process concludes.

The trimmed waste-hauling allocation remains tied to the city's ongoing response to post-Binaliw landfill costs. Whether the reduced figure proves sufficient against actual disposal expenses in the remainder of 2026 will be a test of the committee's budget projections, according to SunStar Cebu's reporting on the fiscal pressures created by the January landfill collapse.