A GROUP of regular employees of the Bacolod City Government gathered outside the City Council session hall on Wednesday to call on legislators to approve the proposed P1.8-billion 2016 budget. Calling themselves the "Concerned Employees of the City," they said the annual budget should be urgently passed so that pending benefits for employees can be released. Because the 2016 budget had not been approved at the start of the fiscal year, the local government code prohibits the council from taking up other matters during council sessions except the 2016 budget. One such matter pushed back is the P26.1-million appropriation ordinance that covered the employees' performance bonus that was supposed to be given at the end of 2015. Jake Castillano, former president of the Bacolod City Government Employees Union and works at the Management Information Technology and Computer Services (MITCS) department, led the employees in venting their concerns. Most of them wore black shirts, and placed posters on the wall outside the session hall that read, “Approve 2016 budget Now Na! Kay higot da ang salary increase sang mga employees,” “P15,000 Achievement Incentive Bonus for 2015 Ihatag Na!, and “Government Employees of Bacolod Unite! Unity is our strength! Fight for our economic rights.” Regular and plantilla casual employees of Bacolod were each supposed to receive P15,000 as an additional bonus during the holidays, compared to the P55,000 granted to each employee of the Negros Occidental Provincial Government. However, Bacolod employees have yet to receive their bonuses due to concerns over a colatilla imposed by the City Council in the bonus appropriation ordinance. The employees said they feared that if the approval of the 2016 budget would be further delayed, they could no longer avail of the P15,000. They pointed out that in 2014, they received P33,000 in bonuses but in 2015, they got nothing and that the Bacolod City government had not given the employees their due. “That money is supposed to be given on or before Christmas, on or before New Year, and now it’s already beyond Three Kings and worse, it might reach Valentine’s Day or beyond that,” Castillano said. “The employees are very sad due to the non-release of such benefit. We all deserve it.” Acting Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran said that on January 11, he sought the opinion of Acting Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) City Director Cherryl Tacda on whether the City Council could take up other matters even while the 2016 budget was still pending. Tacda cited a legal opinion signed by DILG Director III Jesus B. Doque IV, stating that Section 323 of the Local Government Code of 1991 is clear that if the Council concerned fails to pass an ordinance authorizing the annual budget before the start of each fiscal year, it shall continue to hold sessions until such ordinance is approved and no other business may be taken up during such sessions. Basic is the rule in statutory construction that where the language of the law is clear, it must be applied according to its expressed terms, it added. By CARLA N. CANET
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