Archival: No salaries for JOs who work sans appointment

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Nestor Archival has announced a definite decision not to pay the wages of Job Order (JO) employees who reported to work without an official appointment from January to June of this year.

During the regular session last Wednesday, Councilor Sisinio Andales raised the issue of unpaid JOs, who have been expressing their frustration over the matter.

“Kaning mga tawhanana, kung wala gani silay mga appointment from January to June, dili gyud nato na masweldohan, kay the one who will make the JO (appointment), kay naa man gud na silay Program of Works, kung wala na sila ma pirmahan ni (former mayor Raymond Alvin) Garcia, di na gyud na sila ma sweldohan,” said Archival in an interview with reporters yesterday.

Archival admitted that upon his assumption of office, at least 300 employees personally went to his office to demand the wages they believed they were entitled to. According to him, as much as he wants to honor these claims, they failed to present supporting documents to prove their appointments.

He added that he cannot simply sign any document on behalf of the previous mayor to formalize their employment or the services they rendered before he took office.

However, Archival said there were some employees with appointments dated June who are already being processed.

During the regular session last Wednesday, Andales proposed that the council initiate a constructive dialogue with the Human Resource Development Office (HRDO), the City Budget Office, and the Local Finance Committee to assess the feasibility of streamlining procedures to ensure the timely release of salaries, especially to assist older personnel.

This came in response to reports that members of the workforce—despite performing their duties—face delays and irregular compensation. Andales emphasized that this issue is commonly observed among JO employees.

It can be recalled that Archival issued a memorandum implementing a “No Appointment, No Work Policy” addressed to department heads. It prohibits casual and project-based personnel without official appointments from reporting for work effective July 1, 2025.

The memorandum, dated June 30, 2025, cites Section 22, Rule VI of the 2017 Omnibus Rules on Appointments and Other Human Resource Actions (Revised July 2018), which states: "The services rendered by any person who was required to assume the duties and responsibilities of any position without an appointment having been issued by the appointing officer/authority shall not be credited nor recognized by the Commission and the payment of salaries and other benefits shall be the personal liability of the person who made him/her assume office."

It was also reported that now that Cebu City Hall is under the helm of a new administration, current employees are already feeling the pinch of displacement amid initial findings of a budget deficit.

In a previous interview, Human Resource Development Office (HRDO) head Henry Tomalabcad said that 50 percent of casual employees have already not had their contracts renewed. This accounts for 1,400 out of the 3,000 casual employees previously retained.

Tomalabcad added that they were only given a list of casual employees for renewal, and noted that they have yet to receive any instructions regarding JO employees, as their respective department heads must first submit project proposals to justify the number of project-based personnel.  LPM (CEBU NEWS)