3,000 workers lose jobs at Muntinlupa City Hall

A Muntinlupa City government official said more than 3,000 employees at the City Hall are now jobless after their contracts expired recently.

Henry Reyes of the City Vice Mayor’s Office said a recent order issued by the City Administrator’s Office has made the termination of contracts or terms of employment of both contractual and casual employees at the City Hall official.

“Several of these workers are employed at several establishments owned by the city government such as the Ospital ng Muntinlupa, Pamantasan ng Muntinlupa, the public market, among others. It would somehow affect operations of the said offices given that they are yet to be replaced by new personnel,” Reyes said in an interview.

Jaime Ventura, the city’s Human Resource Manager, said the slots of these displaced employees will be taken over by a new set of contractual and casual employees.

“Employees under these categories are subject to evaluation of their performance and would have to submit specified requirements before they are able to achieve regular status,” Ventura said.

He also bared a plan by city officials to increase the available job slots under the city government’s existing plantilla by 1,000 to 2,000 slots.

“We would like to give jobs to more people but there are only limited slots,” Ventura said. “However, we are still working on it.”

This developed as the city government is putting in place specific programs and projects it will implement under the administration of Mayor Aldrin San Pedro, who won against Loreta Fresnedi, the wife of former mayor Jaime Fresnedi, in the last May 14 elections. ­ – Rhodina Villanueva