Cebu City Councilor Raymond Garcia says that the City Council has approved on final reading the retirement gratuity benefit for elected barangay officials. | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City barangay officials who have served a certain number of terms will finally be assured of retirement gratuity.
The City Council passed the ordinance called A Retirement Gratuity Benefit for Elected Barangay Officials in City of Cebu, authored by Councilor Raymond Garcia.
Under the passed ordinance, barangay captains are entitled to receive retirement gratuity of P5,000 that will be computed per year of service while barangay councilors will get P3,000 per year of service.
The barangay official can get the gratuity upon turning 60 years, and he must be alive upon the claiming of the retirement gratuity.
The official must have served at least one full term or the full three years of a term and must not have been terminated by final judgement.
Councilor Garcia said the gratuity would help those barangay officials who have dedicated most of their lives in barangay service.
“Dako kaayo ni nga tabang sa atong barangay officials nga wala intawon retirement benefits sa ilang panerbisyo,” said Garcia.
(This will be a big help to the barangay officials who have no retirement benefits for their service.)
The ordinance was conceptualized when late Punta Princesa Barangay Captain Joe Navarro, died in 2016 and after 36 years in government service.
Navarro also used to be president of the city’s Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), but he did not receive any form of retirement despite his years in service.
Navarro, Garcia said, did not get any financial help from City Hall after he succumbed to liver failure. Navarro was 73 years old then.
The gratuity ordinance would help the aging officials as well who might have chosen to work full time as barangay officials during their many years of service.
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