Mayor: the non-passage of the budget hinders the salary of Isabela’s 447 Olympic Games

DUE to the non-adoption of the city’s supplementary budget, some 447 employees of the work orders (JO) of the municipal government of Isabela have not yet received their salaries since October 15.

City mayor Irene Montilla said the city council headed by Deputy Mayor Renato Malabor, Jr. received their Supplementary Budget Request # 2 on July 13, 2021 in the amount of P 3,393,717.28. .

But of that number, she said, only P 1,880,012.90 was approved.

Montilla said the budget for contract workers’ wages was included in the supplementary budget request.

The mayor explained that since the supplementary budget was only partially approved, her office made another request to the city council to approve supplementary budget No 3.

The new request included the portion of Supplementary Budget # 2 that was not approved, Montilla said, adding that the source of funds was personal service savings.

“Unfortunately, to date, they have not acted on these requests without justifying why they do not approve them and that is the reason why we cannot pay our employees in charge of the orders,” he said. – she lamented.

Montilla said it had been brought to his attention that there was a “press release” explaining why the budget was not approved. However, she did not read it.

In addition, a proposed ordinance has been reported to increase the wages of employees on orders to P100 per day.

“In the newspaper it’s fine, but in reality how can they do it when they haven’t even approved Supplementary Estimates 2 and 3?” Montilla asked.

The mayor stressed that there should be more action and less discussion, urging city council members “to do something (the budget)”.

At the flag ceremony yesterday, November 15, Montilla told contract workers that the non-payment of their wages was beyond his control.

As a temporary measure, at their initiative, Montilla and his son, Councilor Juan Miguel, distributed rice to the affected employees.

She recalled that a similar incident had occurred in 2019 when she was not yet mayor of the city.

When she took office, Montilla said, her office also did not have a budget allocation for maintenance and other running expenses, nor the fund for JO employees.

It also took a while for the board to approve it, she said.

“We had to increase the budget of the different offices so that we could survive,” Montilla recalled.

If Montilla is to be believed, there appears to be a pattern of repeating political obstructionism.

Unfortunately, this has affected the 447 JO employees and their families, she said, adding that despite the non-payment of their wages, these workers continue to carry out their jobs, especially at the height of the pandemic. coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Montilla revealed that they had already referred this matter to the Home and Local Government Department (DILG).

“We have to wait (just like) last year when they approved the budget in February when we are about to operate on a replenished budget,” she said.

Montilla said she will take appropriate action to resolve the issue, as the Mandamus decision which directs the devolution of more government functions to the local government unit will begin.

This is a national directive under Executive Decree No. 38, she said.

Earlier, Isabella’s adviser Francis Malabor said he needed the list of all Olympics and casuals before acting on the additional 3.6 million pesos requested by Montilla’s office.

Malabor, who is the chairman of the council’s finance committee, told reporters they have been requesting this list since 2019, but it has never been provided.

He said the current year’s budget of 17 million pesos for personal services should have been sufficient for the year.

Malabor cited a provision in the Local Government Code stating that the Sangguniang Bayan must receive a copy of the list of Olympics and casual employees before proceeding with the request.