Protesting Angeles City Hall employees return to work

ANGELES CITY - Frail normalcy returned to the City Hall after hundreds of employees, who protested the non-payment of their bonuses, returned to work yesterday.

Isabelita Ruiz, president of the Association of Government Employees for a New and Dynamic Angeles (Agenda) announced that Mayor Camelo Lazatin had agreed to a dialogue with the union members.

Operations at the City Hall were totally paralyzed last week when the mayor refused to dialogue with the protesting employees, who waited for him at the City Hall until 3:00 a.m. on Friday as he played at the casino here.

Lazatin admitted to local media that he had indeed played at the casino, but stressed he used his personal funds. The mayor reportedly lost.

The employees have been demanding the release of their P5,000 bonus, which was supposed to have been released in December last year. The bonus was part of the collective bargaining agreement signed by Lazatin and Agenda officials.

Lazatin, however, earlier said that the city government has no budget surplus to fund the bonus, insisting that he had already allocated for development and other projects some P7.8 million released recently by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

City councilor Ireneo Alvaro, chairman of the local council’s appropriations committee, however said that the P7.8 million was actually a surplus fund from which employees’ bonus could be derived. But he stressed that Lazatin had the prerogative to use the fund for other purposes.

As this developed, Civil Service Commission (CSC) assistant director for Central Luzon Engelbert Anthony Onite told The STAR that unless there is a formal complaint, no charges can be filed against Lazatin.

However, Onite said that the mayor’s act could be covered by Republic Act 6713 or the ethical standards for government personnel.

"But it is premature to say whether he should be charged," Onite added.

Onite said that Lazatin had announced he would first meet with his department heads and CSC officials before facing Agenda officials late yesterday afternoon.

"I am crossing my fingers that the mayor would agree to use the P7.8 million for the bonuses of the employees’" Alvaro said.

Lazatin was not at the flag ceremony at the City Hall yesterday. He could not also be contacted by phone.