P50T bonus is plain extravagance!

To his credit, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is known for his generosity towards government workers by giving them incentives or motivating them. But this time, he may be bringing it to the extreme.

Plain extravagance. That’s the phrase that came to my mind when I learned that the mayor considered giving a P50,000 bonus to City Hall’s regular and casual employees in time for the Charter Day Anniversary of Cebu City.

“Sa pila ka tuig nangagi, naa man g’yud koy Charter (bonus). As much as possible, not less than P20,000 but if it can be P50,000, why not?” the mayor was quoted as saying.

This means that should the coffers allow it, he has no problem giving said amount. The problem is that people will only dare tell the mayor that there is still money in the coffers. Nobody will tell him the real score.

The staggering amount is the mayor’s way of saying thank you to the City Hall employees who helped make the Sinulog 2023 celebration successful. There is no problem with having a sense of gratitude, but at whose expense? As usual, it’s at the expense of the taxpayers.

Of course, the employees cannot be faulted if they will receive the bonus. The decision to give will not be from them, after all. Besides, there are still many honest and hardworking workers in City Hall. They know well enough that the service they render is not something the people owe them; on the contrary, it’s something they owe to the people as public servants.

Let me also be distinctly clear that I am not against giving bonuses. Incentives in themselves are not wrong. But things have limits.

It can be recalled that in 2022, City Hall employees received ?10,000. A jump to ?50,000 is unjustifiable. To use the Sinulog's success as the convincing reason to justify such a move borders on using God to justify greed.

We must all celebrate the success of Sinulog 2023, regardless of the venue debate before that day. Those who expressed reservations about holding it at the SRP did not object for the sake of objecting. They had their valid concerns. Nobody could have predicted whether or not it would rain that day. Anybody can be wrong. But it's all water under the bridge now.

However, the success of the Sinulog cannot and should not be used as a basis for over-rewarding those involved in it.

Rama also said that this year's bonus would not be less than P20,000. Still, I am not sure about the logic of that amount. But maybe a little increase from last year's P10,000 will be a sound one. At the risk of being repetitive --as I said this many times already-- let me say once more that we have to be financially conservative these days, for we are still collectively trying to recover from the economic horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prudence dictates that it is scandalous to watch one sector unjustifiably receive a huge bonus while the overwhelming majority still wonder how to survive the next day.

Furthermore, it is harder to be told to return the amount after one has spent it already, like the P20,000 calamity assistance given to each city hall employee in 2013 by the same mayor. COA disallowed such amounts as financial assistance after the earthquake and the super typhoon hit Cebu.

Remember that taxes are supposed to return to the people through services and projects. Taxes are not meant to benefit the few.