ZAFRA
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña suspended the granting of allowances to the city’s barangay tanods and garbage loaders starting this month until after their performance had been evaluated.
In a memo signed last Jan. 24 but received by barangay officials only yesterday, Osmeña cited budget limitations as the reason for the withdrawal of allowances.
Councilor Philip Zafra, who heads the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), said the delivery of services in the barangays will be hampered since the honoraria “is the lifeblood of support” to barangay workers.
Zafra, who is also Barangay Tisa chairman, said while the city isn’t obligated to give honoraria to the barangay tanods and loaders, this had been a practice for sometime.
He said the city gives a monthly honorarium of P4,000 to tanods and P5,000 to loaders.
Zafra said smaller barangays with smaller incomes cannot afford to give their counterpart which means their tanods and loaders won’t be paid.
There are 20 tanods in each of the city’s 80 barangays while the number of garbage loaders and drivers vary in each barangay.
In yesterday’s press conference, Osmeña told reporters that he received reports that there were tanods and garbage loaders who were not doing their jobs.
“We are in the process of cleaning the whole thing. I want to make it clear on the outset that we are not obligated to pay them anything,” he said.
Osmeña said he wants an assurance that the city’s money is well spent.
Apas barangay chairman Ramil Ayuman said he thinks the mayor is going after barangay officials not allied with his administration.
Zafra said the suspension of honoraria to tanods and loaders should come after and not before their evaluation.
He also said barangay officials should conduct the evaluation since they know the tanods and loaders best.
But Osmeña said he has a team to evaluate the performance of tanods and garbage loaders.
When asked how long the evaluation would last, Osmeña said he does not have an idea.
He said he wants to find out the facts first.
“We are not entitled to clean up the list? (In) Kamputhaw, they don’t like to collect the garbage. So what will we do? Because we don’t pay them, they will not collect the garbage? (If) we pay them, they won’t collect the garbage anyway. So what is the point? We will replace them,” Osmeña said.