Angeles workers poise more mass actions

ANGELES CITY — Public services in this city might again be paralyzed as they were over a week ago.

This, as union leaders of some 1,200 City Hall employees are meeting today to map out more mass actions this week amid the failure of Mayor Carmelo Lazatin to dialogue with them on the granting of their P5,000 GMA bonus.

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has apparently failed to convince Lazatin to accommodate the request of the officers of the Association of Government Employees for a New and Dynamic Angeles (Agenda) for a dialogue, or at least give them an assurance that the GMA bonus totaling P7.2 million would be granted.

Agenda president Isabelita Ruiz said their committee heads are plotting today another indefinite protest action that could again totally paralyze operations of the city government.

Lazatin could not be reached for comment.

But in a statement, he said he was still awaiting the opinion of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on whether he could use for the bonuses P1.4 million in savings which City Hall department heads have pooled from the savings of their respective offices.

He asked the DILG whether the amount could be "reverted to the next supplemental budget for the GMA bonus."

Lazatin said he could not readily use the amount for bonuses, explaining that the DILG has differentiated savings from surplus from which the GMA bonus was supposed to be derived.

"Much as I want to grant the GMA bonus, we don’t have any surplus from the general fund. Even now that the department heads have pooled their savings, there is still a need to seek clarification from the DILG on whether the funds could be correctly used for the GMA bonus," he said.

But Ruiz said that while the P1.4 million is inadequate to grant the GMA bonuses of all the 1,200 City Hall employees, the fund could not be used to grant the bonus since it is supposed to add up to this year’s savings.

She said Lazatin did not seek any clarification from the DILG on the P7.8 million released early this month by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The amount, she said, was deposited with the Development Bank of the Philippines "for credit" to the city’s current account and represented the city’s share of the 2001 Local Government Service Equalization Fund.

"That P7.8 million constitutes surplus that could be used for the GMA bonus," Ruiz said.

Councilor Bong Alvaro, chairman of the city council’s appropriations committee, expressed a similar view, but said that Lazatin had the prerogative to include the P7.8 million in the regular budget.

Ruiz bewailed Lazatin’s failure to meet with the Agenda leaders, who earlier had softened in their demand for the immediate granting of the bonus by instead asking the mayor for a dialogue and an assurance that the GMA bonus would eventually be granted.

She said they will meet with Interior and Local Government Secretary Joey Lina on Wednesday to seek his help.

Agenda has also sought the direct intervention of Civil Service Commissioner Karina David amid the failure of a CSC team to arrange a dialogue between the union leaders and Lazatin.

Lazatin, however, said he has other priorities. "We have only P15 million on hand. Some P19 million more will be needed for our priority expenses up to December," he said in the statement.