City looks for source to fund bonus

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama will propose another supplemental budget to fund the bonus for City Hall employees.

The mayor is still undecided whether to grant P10,000 or P15,000 to each employee because the amount will depend on the available funds.

Rama already met with the Local Finance Committee and ordered to identify the source of funds for the bonus, which will likely be taken from this year’s savings.

Rama earlier planned to grant P10,000 bonus to all regular and casual employees on top of the mandatory 13th month pay.

The council last week passed a resolution urging the mayor to grant P15,000 bonus to each employee.

Rama is not against the proposed amount saying other local government units are even receiving higher bonuses.

Supplemental Budget No. 2 was just recently passed after four months of deliberation, but the mayor believes there is enough time to pass SB 3.

The city needs to appropriate P75 million to grant the P15,000 bonus to almost 5,000 employees.

Only regular and casual employees are entitled to the bonus, but the city government also provides gifts in kind to job order personnel. — (FREEMAN)