Sagarbarria defends rice gifts for J.O. workers

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines – Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria has defended his administration on the practice of giving rice to job order employees of the city government during Christmas, which he said has been going on for the last 23 years.

In a press conference on Monday, Sagarbarria also wanted answers from the Commission on Audit on why his administration is singled out in recommending the disallowance of this expense, referring to the P900,000 worth of rice purchase last December, intended as “white gifts” for the job order workers.

These type of workers were not included in the benefits allotted to regular and casual plantilla employees, such as cash gifts and bonuses, among others.

The city government has a total of 1,642 employees, more than 500 of them are regular employees, another 500 are casual plantilla and about 500 more or less are job order workers.   .

Job order employees are mostly indigent and live below the poverty line and giving rice to them at Christmas time is a big help to their families, Sagarbarria said, adding that he only adopted the same practice of his predecessors.

This was practiced during the first ten years of the late Mayor Agustin Perdices, followed by three years of former Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo, another eight years of Mayor Perdices and in 2010 up to the present by the present administration.

Sagarbarria described the COA’s move as “unfair,” saying it should have forewarned his administration that this practice was not allowed.

The appropriation was approved by the City Council on mass motion and then went through the normal procurement process. Then the distribution of rice to job order employees last Christmas had gone through the legal processes, approved by the Council again, with all documents submitted to the COA, fully accounting the rice stocks to the last kilo, Sagarbarria said.

The city government has already sent its reply to the disallowance notice to the COA-Central Visayas office. “If ever, we will have to reimburse that but perhaps not the outright return of the full amount, but we can do that slowly,” Sagarbarria added.  (FREEMAN)