JULY 16, 2023: A glimpse at the facade of the Cebu City Hall. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The payrolls have been signed and salaries are now being processed, but it is still not enough.
The payroll for four Cebu City regular government employees and former tax mappers has been signed and is now in the process of releasing their salaries, which have been pending for 10 months.
However, the resolution covers only the months from January to April 2024.
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Sybil Ann Ybañez, one of the affected employees, informed reporters via email on Wednesday, April 24, that Dr. Theresa Rosell, the acting city assessor, had signed their payroll at 11:44 AM.
She noted, however, that their salaries for July to December 2023 are still pending, as these will be charged to the prior year’s account and must undergo approval by the city administrator and the Sanguniang Panglalawigan.
The issues came to light when the four ex-tax mappers, including Ybañez, Maria Almicar Diongzon, Filomena Atuel, and Chito Dela Cerna, approached the media on April 16 to prompt action from city officials who had pledged to address their concerns.
They had been reassigned to different offices within the city as of June 1, 2023, according to a reassignment order.
Ybañez was assigned as a house parent at Operation Second Chance in Kalunasan, while the others were distributed across various city departments.
Questioning the relevance of their new roles, the group sought advice from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) field office and filed an appeal against their reassignments.
The CSC ruled that the pending reassignments were non-executory, yet the four continued to report to the office without receiving their salaries.
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In January 2024, after months without pay, they sought assistance from Mayor Michael Rama and City Councilor Nestor Archival, which led to the approval of Resolution No. 16-2453-2024 by the City Council on January 24.
The resolution, authored by Archival, requested the release of their unpaid salaries and other benefits for humanitarian reasons.
Despite this, Henry Tomalabcad, head of the Human Resource and Development Office (HRDO), reported difficulties in coordinating the release of their salaries and benefits with the Assessor’s Office and the City Legal Office.
The employees received a further designation order to report directly to Lawyer Collin Rosell, the city administrator.
Lawyer Collin Rosell, in a press conference on April 17, attributed the delay in salary payments to the employees’ non-compliance with their reassignment.
He claimed that their defiance caused confusion and hindered the payroll processing due to uncertainties about signatory authority.