After their salaries for the second half of November were delayed and finally getting them on top of a P10,000 bonus, they are to get yet another P3,000 before Christmas and another P7,000 in next year’s first quarter.
This was bared yesterday by Mayor Francis Nepomuceno who said that enough funds have been raised from real property taxes (RPT) to cover all the bonus and “extra cash gifts” for 1,200 employees of the city government.
City Administrator Irineo Alvaro said that the salaries of the employees for the last half of November was delayed because some other financial obligations, including a P30 million monthly amortization for loans obtained by the past city administration, had to be settled.
“It was not really an unusual thing for their salaries to be delayed a bit,” he said after Pampanga’s 1st district Rep. Carmelo Lazatin accused the city government of mismanagement following the delay in salaries.
Alvaro said that the employees have already received their delayed salaries as cash from RPT’s flowed into the coffers.
He said that the city government has also already released P7,000 bonus based on the “collective negotiations agreement” with the city employees, P2,000 cash gift, and P1,000 “birthday bonus” for each local government personnel.
Nepomuceno said that on top of these, the employees are to get “extra bonus” of P3,000 before Christmas and another P7,000 within the first quarter of the coming year.
Alvaro explained that the bonuses being given by the city government are not covered by the P10,000 gift cash ordered recently by Pres. Arroyo.
“The President’s order covered only national government agencies, government controlled corporations and government financial institutions, not local governments,” he noted.
