THE month of December has yet to arrive but already, Yuletide blessings have started to pour for casual and regular employees of the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
In its regular session yesterday, the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) approved the province’s third Supplemental Budget (SB) for fiscal year 2017 which amounts to P155.5 million.
Of the budget, P31 million will be for the cash incentives of more than 1,500 regular and casual employees of the provincial government; while the rest will be used as additional funds for the operation of all 16 province-owned hospitals and the Cebu South Bus Terminal (CSBT).
Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas said provincial workers will be entitled to a P20,000-bonus this December as part of their collective negotiation agreement (CNA).
The CNA incentive is given as a result of savings made due to cost-cutting measures and systems improvements of the provincial government with funds needed for the bonuses to be taken out from provincial government savings.
“We came up with the amount of P20,000 based on our available savings,” said Rodas.
He explained that those qualified to receive it are regular and casual employees who are expected to continue working for the provincial government this December 15 and the dates beyond it.
Capitol’s 18 elected officials including Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale and 16 PB members are also entitled to the P20,000-cash incentive.
Rodas said the CNA-based bonus for December is not a “Christmas bonus per se” since it strictly follows guidelines from the CNA.
Performance-based bonuses such as the “Christmas bonus” will still depend on the governor’s decision, he said.
As for job order (JO) employees, Rodas said that they may also receive bonuses if President Rodrigo Duterte issues another executive order (EO) directing government bodies and agencies nationwide to also include JOs as bonus’ recipients.
Last December 2016, Duterte issued an EO granting JOs a P2,000-bonus each.
Present guidelines of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) only grants regular and casual employees 13th and 14th month payments, the former usually distributed in May and the latter in the months nearing Christmas.