Court order needed for Capitol to release 10-yr COLA back pay

The provincial government is willing to give its employees a 10 years' worth of Cost of Living Allowance back pays if the court orders it to do so.

Capitol Consultant on Information Pablo John Garcia yesterday said that the administration of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia is willing to give qualified provincial employees COLA back pays provided they ask for it legally like some government employees who were granted back pays by the Supreme Court.

Garcia said the granting of COLA back pays by the Supreme Court applies only to those who sought for such relief, as in the case of the employees of the Philippine Ports Authority.

Provincial Employees Association of Cebu, headed by Diosdado Cayme, wrote the governor requesting that the Capitol grant them COLA back pays. The letter came with a copy of the Supreme Court decision on the PPA case and a resolution approved by the Provincial Board of Saranggani granting the same to its employees.

Cayme said the Capitol employees' organization will ask a PB member to sponsor a resolution on the matter and may also go to court.

He, however, said that the directive from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to the Department of Budget and Management to coordinate with the Department of Labor and Employment for the release of over a billion pesos as COLA back pay was for all government employees.

The giving of COLA was approved in 1989 but was suspended in 1999 due to lack of publishing requirements. - Ferliza C. Contratista