• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The first tranche of salary increases for Bacolod City employees takes effect Aug. 15, after the Sangguniang Panlungsod approved the allocation of P14 million from the Special Purpose Appropriation-Other Personnel Benefits Fund in the 2024 annual budget.
Of the P14 million, P9.38 million will be for the salaries and wages of regular employees, and P622,559 for casual/contractual, P1.4 million to pay for the retirement and life insurance premiums, P219,986 for PhilHealth contributions, P1.9 million as yearend bonus, and P385,082 in hazard pay, as per the certification on the availability of the amount for reversion, issued Aug. 12, by City Budget Officer Maria Imelda Williams.
The SP’s passage of the appropriation ordinance on first, second, and third reading under suspended rules, was as per request of Mayor Alfredo Benitez to adopt and authorize the implementation of the first tranche of the modified salary schedule for local government unit personnel, under Executive Order (EO) 64-2024 of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. dated Aug. 2, 2024.
The EO updates the salary schedule “given the prevailing economic circumstances, including the erosion of the purchasing power due to inflation,” said Marcos, who first announced during his 3rd State of the Nation Address July 22 that his administration was working on a four-tranche salary increase for government workers.
Under Local Budget Circular 160-2024, dated Aug. 12, DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the salary increase shall include “all positions for salaried LGU personnel, whether regular, contractual, or casual in nature, elective or appointive, fulltime or part-time, now existing or hereafter created in LGUs; and all positions for barangay personnel which are paid monthly honoraria.”
Excluded from the coverage of this circular are those engaged without employer-employee relationship and funded from non-personnel Services (PS) appropriations/budgets, like consultants and experts hired for a limited period to perform specific activities or services with expected outputs; laborers 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 similarly situated, Pangandaman said.
Data furnished to the Negros NOW Daily by the Bacolod Human Resource Management Services show that, as of Aug. 20, there are a total of 1,267 city employees, and of the number, 1,098 are permanent.
“The effectivity of the implementation by LGUs shall be on the date of approval of the appropriation ordinance authorizing the supplemental budget or augmentation,” Pangandaman stressed. | CGC
