• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Sangguniang Panlungsod of Bacolod authorized Aug. 6 the implementation of the second tranche of salary increases for city employees, with P18,700,000 to be sourced from the Special Purpose Appropriation-Other Personnel Benefits Fund in the 2025 annual budget.
The SP, under suspended rules, passed on first, second, and third and final reading the appropriation ordinance adopting and authorizing the implementation of this salary hike.
This is the second of the four-year wage adjustment under Executive Order 64 of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., dated Aug. 2, 2024.
Under Local Budget Circular 165 dated July 18, 2025 by the Department of Budget and Management, covered by the second tranche are “all positions for salaried LGU personnel, whether regular, contractual, or casual in nature, elective or appointive, full-time or part-time, now existing or hereafter created in the LGUs…as well as all positions for barangay personnel that are paid monthly honoraria”.
Excluded are those engaged without employer-employee relationship and funded from non-PS appropriations/budgets, like consultants and experts engaged for a limited period to perform specific activities or services with expected outputs; laborers engaged through job contracts (pakyaw) and those paid on piecework basis; student-workers and apprentices; and individuals whose services are engaged through job orders, contracts of service, or others situated similarly, the DBM said.
There are more than 1,000 city employees.
The salary increase is expected to take effect later this month.
The first tranche took effect August last year, after the SP approved the allocation of P14 million that was taken from the Special Purpose Appropriation-Other Personnel Benefits Fund in the 2024 annual budget. | CGC
