• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Mayor Greg Gasataya said he has signed Aug. 8 the notices of salary adjustment of 1,300 regular employees and plantilla casuals of the Bacolod City government, who are qualified to receive the second tranche of increases.
This after the Sangguniang Panlungsod approved Aug. 6 the appropriation ordinance adopting and authorizing the implementation of the second tranche of the Modified Salary Schedule for Local Government Personnel, per Executive Order 64-2024, signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Aug. 2 last year.
The P18,700,000 will be sourced from the Special Purpose Appropriation-Other Personnel Benefits Fund in the 2025 annual budget, per certification from City Budget Officer Maria Imelda Williams.
Of the amount, P14.13 million will be for the salaries and wages of regular employees, P433,680 for casual/contractual salaries, P1.7 million as retirement and life insurance premiums, P318,298 as PhilHealth contributions, P1.56 million as yearend bonus, and P507,450 in hazard pay.
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”, per Local Budget Circular 165 dated July 18, 2025 of the Department of Budget and Management.
Not covered 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.
With Gasataya’s signing of the notices of salary adjustment, eligible employees are expected to start receiving the increase later this month.
This is the second of the four-year wage adjustment under EO 64-2024. The first tranche took effect August last year, with an appropriation of P14 million, taken from the Special Purpose Appropriation-Other Personnel Benefits Fund in the 2024 annual budget. | CGC
