City increases cops' allowance to P2T

CEBU, Philippines - In consideration of the efforts of the police in maintaining peace and order in the city, the Cebu City government finally granted the P1,000 additional incentive to the 758 personnel of the Cebu City Police Office.

Mayor Michael Rama confirmed that he has signed the order for the additional increase which the police can claim anytime now.

The allowance granted will be retroactive from the time the request was made which was last July.

Previously, policemen only received a P1,000 incentive from the city. After a series of dialogues between the city government and the CCPO, the request was finally granted by the mayor last month.

The request was initiated by former CCPO director Patrocinio Comendador and reiterated by incumbent CCPO director Melvin Ramon Buenafe.

All 758 CCPO members, including the non-uniformed personnel, shall now receive a P2,000 monthly allowance except for the CCPO director and the CCPO deputy directors who shall receive a monthly allowance of P8,000 and P7,000, respectively.

The requested increase requires an additional P9.5 million until December. It shall be charged to this year’s allocation for Peace and Order Program which has a balance of about P10 million.   Another budget for the Peace and Order Program shall be allocated for the fiscal year 2011. Buenafe said that his office received the good news from the city government last week.

“Gi-announce na namo sa tanang head of office and station commanders during our last command conference. Everybody was grateful as it is a significant development for us,” Buenafe said.

Recently, the city government has approved the additional allowance of city prosecutors and the members of the National Bureau of Investigation in the region. There are still a lot of pending requests for additional allowance being studied by the city government.

Rama earlier said that the city will grant requests for allowance based on the availability of funds as the city also has other priorities. — THE FREEMAN