Council asks Mike to grant P15T bonus

CEBU, Philippines - If Mayor Michael Rama approves it, 5,000 Cebu City Hall employees will have a merrier Christmas this year.

The Cebu City Council, in a resolution, asked Rama to grant P15,000 cash bonus to all city hall employees next month.

This is P5,000 more than the P10,000 bonus that the mayor planned to give.

The council approved the resolution yesterday urging the mayor to grant the amount to all employees except elected officials and release it on December 15.

Mayor Rama, during yesterday’s regular news conference, said P15,000 is fine as long as there is available funds.

Granting P15,000 cash assistance to each casual and regular employees would need more or less P75 million.

Earlier, Rama said he is planning to give P10,000 to each employee, which is the same amount granted last year.

He added if other municipalities and cities are providing P20,000 to their employees, it may be replicated to the city government considering the city still have billions in its coffer.

But he said it will still depend on the availability of funds.

Rama said he may also grant bonus to elected officials if the law allows it.

He said though that it has been a practice that all employees including elected officials receive bonuses every December. 

However, job order employees do not enjoy cash bonuses.  Last year, the city gave bonus to job order personnel not in cash, but in kind.

Bonuses are sourced from the savings of the current year. Earlier, Councilor Jose Daluz III, a trusted ally of the mayor, said the city has money to fund the bonus. – (FREEMAN)