No official request yet over budget for bonus
After Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced a possible Charter Day bonus for City Hall employees, Councilor Noel Wenceslao said he can sponsor the resolution to grant the budget, but stressed that the executive department has yet to submit any request.
In an interview yesterday, Feb.9,2024, Wenceslao said that they are still awaiting the formal letter of request from the executive department for the supplemental budget to grant the charter day bonus.
Wenceslao is also the chairman of the Committee on Budget and chair of the Finance committee at the City Council.
The mayor and the Local Finance Committee (LFC) have earlier announced that they will let the council set the amount for the bonus since they no longer want the same fate of Rama’s proposed Christmas bonus, which was slashed by the Council.
According to Wenceslao, it will be the first time that the City Council will be deciding the amount of the bonus.
"I don't know how we can do it but as practice man gud, the proposal should come from the executive and then ang legislative will either approve the proposal, increase the proposal, or decrease the proposal," said Wenceslao.
He disclosed that the city council will be meeting to tackle the matter in hopes that they could also arrive with an amount.
"Tan-awon gyud nato pila gyud ang mahatag if ever we are given the authority to propose kung pila gyud ang bonus," said Wenceslao, who added that he will submit the resolution next week in time for the city’s Charter Day celebration on Feb.24.
In December 2023, Rama proposed granting P35,000 as Christmas bonuses to all regular and casual employees of Cebu City hall.
Additionally, Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia then authored an ordinance that will stand as legal basis to back the granting of gratuity pay of P10,000 to Job order (JO) employees.
But the legislative body reduced the proposed budget as it “was too much.” They instead approved P20,000 bonuses for regular and casual employees and P5,000 for JO employees.