Makati approves productivity bonus of city hall employees

MANILA, Philippines - The Makati City Council on Wednesday announced that it has already passed the ordinance appropriating P131 million for the granting of the Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) or the productivity bonus to qualified employees of the city government.

According to acting Makati Vice Mayor Leonardo Magpantay, the PEI is equivalent to an employee’s one-month salary.

In a statement, Magpantay, the top-ranked city councilor in the 2013 local elections, acknowledged that it was suspended Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay who initiated the granting of the said bonus to employees in line with Executive Order 181.

Magpantay said that as early as last May, Mayor Binay had directed the city council to study his proposal to grant the incentive to qualified employees. Under EO 181, all regular, casual and contractual city government workers who have rendered at least four months of continuous service as of May 31, 2015 were entitled to the bonus.

Intrigue and innuendo

During the session on Tuesday, Makati City Councilor Nemesio “King” Yabut Jr. delivered his privilege speech against the “intrigue and innuendo” that the city council has been enduring since July, when Acting Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña assumed his post after Mayor Binay stepped down.

“Since July, this body has been the butt of intrigue and innuendo simply because there are those who desire to appear magnanimous in their temporary positions,” Yabut said in his speech.

Yabut said Peña’s conflicting statements and actions on the alleged presence of “ghost” employees at city hall have hampered the city council’s approval of the P131-million PEI appropriation ordinance.

Yabut said that Peña was quoted by one newspaper to have “declared war” on alleged “ghost employees” right after he assumed his post as acting city mayor.  This, Yabut said, gave the impression that the city’s employee roster was “riddled with ghost employees”.

However, prior to this, Yabut said Peña declared that he would “immediately terminate some 3,000 casual employees, presumably ‘ghost employees,’ once he was able to take over Mayor Binay’s seat.”

“(Peña) seems to have conveniently forgotten certain declarations he made to constituents and the media as early as March of this year, which we as a legislative body are obliged to consider in our deliberations,” Yabut said.

Yabut also lashed at Peña saying that as a former city councilor, the now acting city mayor should already be well-versed with the procedures that the city council is legally bound to follow.

“And yet for two months he has continuously blamed this body for not passing the PEI,” Yabut said.

Yabut also underscored the apparent disconnect between Peña’s own declarations and his insistent demand that the city council immediately approve the budget allocation amounting to P131 million, which was based on the city’s payroll as of June this year, when the city mayor was still the now suspended Binay.

“By Mr. Peña’s own declarations, the said amount (P131 million) contains the 3,000 casual employees he was hell-bent on terminating and the numerous ‘ghost employees’ he vowed to eradicate,” Yabut said.

Yabut also cited a Joint Committee Meeting last September 1 with the officer-in-charge of the city’s Human Resource Development Office (HRDO), Doris Villanueva, who brought to light certain “abnormal procedures” that the city’s casual employees may have been exposed to while their appointments were being renewed.

At the said meeting, Villanueva, who was appointed by Peña, disclosed that more than 3,000 casual employees had been renewed. She also positively declared that “there are no ghost employees” at city hall.

Villanueva also informed them that she received a memo from Peña’s office, declaring that the HR office would not be involved in the interview process for casual employees. It turned out that the interviews were conducted by staffers of the Office of the Vice Mayor and certain incumbent barangay officials.

Yabut said the HR head’s revelations pose certain questions that Peña was duty-bound to answer.

Among these were: 1) Did the HRDO deputize the interviewers?  2) Can the HRDO legally deputize staff members of other offices and/or incumbent barangay officials to take over its functions? Are there qualification standards that must be met by the interviewers? If so, were they in fact met?  3) Was it the acting mayor who ordered the OVM staffers to conduct the interviews? If so, can the acting mayor be charged with usurpation? 4) Do the OVM staff report to the acting vice mayor for supervision? If they do not, are they derelict in their responsibilities? 5) By Ms. Villanueva's statements and the amount of the PEI ordinance for consideration, is Kid Peña now saying that there are no ghosts in Makati?

“These questions demand answers, Mr. Chairman. These incidents are no longer lapses, they are abuses,” Yabut said.

“Makati City has been saddled with an acting chief executive who has long coveted the position without an inkling of the grave responsibilities inherent thereto; an acting mayor who all too often shoots from the hip and gets caught by the ricochets; a temporary leader who has lived up to the label that is his name, bringing back to city hall persons of questionable reputations and intentions,” he said.

“Mr. Chairman, the barbarians are not only at the gates, but within the walls, and this Chamber is the last line of legitimately mandated defenders of this City,” Yabut added.