CH assures fund for P35T bonus

CEBU, Philippines —  Despite not having reached the P50-billion target revenue collection for 2023, the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office has assured there is money for the proposed P35,000 Christmas bonus of City Hall employees.

City treasurer Mare Var Reyes presented before the members of the City Council during a special budget hearing Tuesday last week where to possibly source out funds for the purpose. Reyes is confident the Council will approve the budget after last week’s hearing.

“Actually I gave the assurance na if ma deliberate lang nila on the 13th (of December), the executive will do its part na ma release jud sya before Christmas,” said Reyes.

Reyes, however, noted the concerns raised by the Committee on Budget and Finance chaired by Councilor Noel Wenceslao, to leave the amount blank when preparing for payroll since the exact figure will still have to go under deliberation during their regular session on Wednesday, December 13.

“So whether ma approved sya or dili, ang amount lang but sure na nga naa, but ang amount lang i-discuss nila. So amoang part sa executive after ma deliberate is among promise na ma deliver pud nila is ma released sya before Christmas sa mga tawo,” said Reyes.

As to the source of funding, Reyes emphasized that the bonuses will not be additional funding but rather the amount accumulated from the savings of personal services. She added that there were plantilla positions approved for the 2023 budget that were not filled up for the year and can be a source of funding for the bonus.

The Cebu City government has an approved budget of P50 billion for 2023. The city, however, failed to raise the whole amount as the treasurer’s office was only able to collect P8 billion as of this month.

“(The target) collection is P50 billion but dili gyud tanan atong gigasto or gibutangan, or gihimo ang project,” said Reyes.

She also said that among the factors that the target collection wasn’t met, is the pending approval of the proposed ordinance revising the Real Property Tax (RPT) rates in the city. The revising of RPT equates to a soar in tax rates which is also equivalent to higher collection from the city. The proposed ordinance is still under deliberation.

“As of karon naa tay P8 billion…nganhi ni sya kwaon ang 35. Mabalik sa council during sa regular session kung mao gyud ang amount apil sad ang JO dungan na, feasible ra sad ang 10k, based ra gihapon sa wala nagamit na funds sa annual budget,” said Reyes.

It was last October 23, 2023, that Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced that the casual and regular employees of Cebu City Hall will receive a P35,000 bonus.