200 job orders may lose work

CEBU, Philippines - About 200 job order personnel are expected to lose their jobs as their contract will not be renewed by the city government next year.

Councilor Noel Eleuterio Wenceslao disclosed this during the final 2015 annual budget deliberation over the weekend. He said 193 of the 422 JOs are expected to end their contracts with the city government because their scope of programs will already conclude by January.

He said it is way impossible to promote all JO personnel as casual employees, as what was promised by some city councilors, because the allocation for personal services was not increased but reduced instead.

The council approved P7.6 billion appropriation for personal services from the proposed P9 billion of the executive department. Also, the budget proposal of P58 million for the salaries of JOs was removed by the committee on budget and finance.

“We can’t accommodate additional casual employees because we did not increase the PS budget next year. According to the budget law, we have limitation of at least 45 percent on the appropriation for PS allocation,” he said.

In 2011, the Commission on Audit, found out that the city has exceeded by at least P62 million the 45 percent limit on the appropriation for personnel services last year. The figure, however, is far lower than the findings of the Department of Budget and Management which earlier observed that the city has exceeded its personnel services appropriation by over P500 million.

Also, Councilor Gerardo Carillo said the city may no longer hire JOs next year since the budget proposed for them was removed from the approved P13.4 billion 2015 annual appropriation.

He stressed that the plan to promote JOs is not “feasible and realistic.”

“Our PS budget would not suffice kun magpuno ta og dugang casual, in effect, daghan mawad-an og trabaho,” he said.

“I pity the JO for giving them false hope nga mahimo silang casual employee. With the exclusion of their budget, many will be terminated,” he said.

Councilors Carillo and Wenceslao objected on the JO item and other items in the annual budget.

Councilor Eugenio Gabuya, however, argued that the city could still accommodate casual employees. Currently, the city has more than 2,000 casual employees.

“Luoy kaayo ang atong mga JO kay i-terminate or reassign anywhere if maigo sa politika and wala’y job tenure. I believe we could still accommodate more casual employees,” he said.

The council has encouraged the executive department to accommodate JOs as casual employees.

“This has to be implemented well and religiously by the executive,” Gabuya said.

Meanwhile, lawyer Mary Rose Salvatierra of the City Legal Office, in a legal opinion, clarified that there is no provision in the Local Government Code which authorizes or obliges the city council to recommend the renewal of employees, including JO personnel, much less their appointment.

“The council may submit their recommendations for the renewal of job order personnel but the discretion on who to appoint or renew lies within the executive authority of the city mayor. The mayor cannot be bound thereto, being the final appointing authority, who to appoint or renew lies within his sole prerogative, subject only to limitations as may be provided by law,” she said.

Section 455 of the Local Government Code provides that the local chief executive “appoints all officials and employees whose salaries and wages are wholly or mainly paid out of the city funds and whose appointments are not otherwise provided for in this Code, as well as those he may be authorized by law to appoint.”  —/BRP (FREEMAN)