30 workers ask city to release salaries

CEBU, Philippines - Thirty former members of what used to be the Squatters Prevention Encroachment Elimination Division (SPEED) are now asking the help of Cebu City Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña to help them collect their salaries that were not given to them for several months already, some of them more than a year.

Osmeña explained to the former city “job order workers” who trooped to her office at the City Hall last Wednesday that the reason they were not paid is that there is no budget for them.

As chairperson of the City Council’s Committee on Budget and Finance, Osmeña explained that the city legislators never slashed any budget that proposed by Mayor Michael Rama for personal services, or salaries and wages of the workers.

A City Hall official who wished not to be named said it could be that the salaries of these job order employees were included in other items of the budget that were slashed.

Rama’s proposed P10.8 Billion annual budget for 2012 was slashed by the City Council to P5.3 Billion after then acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo failed to convince the city legislators that the proposed budget is attainable.

“Looy na g’yud tawon kaayo mi kay naputos mi sa mga utang sa lainlaing tindahan. Wala na’y mosukol namo sa pagpautang,” one of the former SPEED members said when interviewed by The FREEMAN. (We’re buried deep in debt.)

These job order employees were part of those who were hired by the city to assist in the clearing operations of illegal structures along the Mahiga Creek last year.

Some of them had stopped working with the city when they failed to collect their salaries for a period of eight months, but others said they sacrificed and worked for over a year without pay.

“Giagwanta ra g’yud namo nga walay sweldo kay naglaum mi nga masweldohan ra, apan tuig na man kapin,” they said. (We continued working for the City hoping we will eventually get our pay, but it’s been over a year now.)

According to them, they decided to seek the help of Osmeña because of a report that it was she who rejected their budget. “Wala mi gi-slash nga budget sa personal services,” Osmeña told them.

The documents showed that Rama included P3,320,480 in the proposed Supplemental Budget No. 2 that is intended for the “Anti-Squatting and Demolition Program.”

Although it was not specifically mentioned that part of the amount will be spent for the salaries of job order employees, a reliable source at the mayor’s office confirmed that the budget includes the payment of unpaid obligations.

The Cebu City Council decided to return to the mayor his proposed supplemental budget because of lack of supporting documents, particularly the sources of funds.

The Commission on Audit (COA) asked the City Council to check the supporting documents of supplemental budgets after the state auditors discovered that the past supplemental budgets were approved without enough sources of funds and this is considered illegal. — (FREEMAN)