CLARK FREEPORT – Multi-million-peso bonuses for the Board of Directors and officials of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) have surfaced amid reports that the perk is in scandalous proportions.
Sources said members of the CDC Board have received as much as P700,000 per individual in performance-based bonuses (PBB) despite pending labor cases before the courts.
Disgruntled employees said the bonus is “way too high” even as the state-run corporation is struggling to meet the “legitimate demands of union workers.”
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had announced in March that funds have already been made available to several departments and agencies, state colleges and universities (SUCs), and government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) for the distribution of the PBB to their respective employees.
But according to CDC Director Frankie Villanueva “compensations of officers are confidential” when asked to make a comment on the brewing controversy. “I can’t make any comment on these,” he added.
These has further fueled speculations of CDC members “compensating themselves way above the moral, if not legal, limits.”
Meanwhile, DBM records showed that the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) had received P4.11 million in PBB for 308 qualified personnel.
The DBM said as of March 11, a total of P831.80 million has been released which benefitted 18,195 personnel.
DBM Secretary Florencio “Butch” B. Abad said: “Since the Administration launched the merit-based bonus scheme in December 2012, the DBM has been receiving and processing submissions from departments and agencies as efficiently as possible, in line with the PBB’s goal of rewarding excellent work among our government employees.”
He said the funds will be sourced from the GOCCs’ own corporate funds.
According to the DBM, the PBB is one of the components of the Administration’s Performance-Based Incentive System (PBIS), an incentive program that recognizes and rewards exemplary performance in government.
It aims to improve the delivery of goods and services to all Filipinos, as well as institute a culture of excellence in public service across the bureaucracy.
