Philippine flags are seen outside the City Hall on June 4. CDN Digital photo by Niña Mae Oliverio
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Retired barangay officials in Cebu City may soon receive gratuity pay, while Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) councils stand to gain increased financial aid in 2025.
Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said that these benefits are part of ongoing efforts to recognize and support local officials for their service.
Garcia, who authored the passage of the ordinance, hopes that the fund will become available next year to allow retired barangay officials to benefit.
The ordinance, passed in 2021, grants gratuity payments to barangay captains and councilors who meet certain criteria, with barangay captains eligible for P5,000 per year of service and barangay councilors for P3,000 per year.
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The ordinance specifies that retired barangay officials can claim their gratuity pay at age 60, provided they have completed at least one full term of service and have not been terminated due to any final judgment.
Garcia said the initiative was important, as it wiwould support barangay officials who had served for years without adequate recognition or financial security.
In addition to gratuity pay, he said there were plans to increase financial assistance for Cebu City’s 80 Sangguniang Kabataan councils.
In July, each SK council received P1 million in aid from the city government. Now, the mayor aims to raise this amount to between P1.5 million and P2 million.
“I want to make this P1.5 to P2 million because we have control over the funds as the city’s administration,” Garcia said.
Furthermore, honorarium-based barangay employees are set to receive Christmas bonuses this December. Garcia included funds for these bonuses in the city’s Supplemental Budget No. 3, which is currently awaiting approval by the City Council.
“Sa kadugay nas panahon ang City Hall gali ang makadawat og Christmas bonus ang mga regular ug casual. Bag-o lang na kay naa koy ordinansa, makadawat na sad ang job order (nga mga empleyado). Unya karon, ang mga empleyado sa barangay nga nagdawat og honorarium gikan sa Cebu City government, wa man diay silay bonus, susama ra sa mga tanod, lupon. Wa man diay,” Garcia said.
(For the longest time in City Hall, the regular or casual employees can receive Christmas bonus. That is just new because there is now an ordinance, the job order (employees) can now also receive that. And now, the barangay employees that can receive a honorarium from the Cebu City government, they don’t have any bonus, it is just the same as a tanod, lupon. They don’t have any.)
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The bonus allocation will provide each honorarium-based barangay employee, including barangay tanods, lupon members, and barangay environmental officers (BEOs), with P5,000.
Meanwhile, the proposal has received preliminary support from members of the City Council. Councilor Noel Wenceslao, chair of the council’s budget and finance committee, said he would support both the increased SK funding and the gratuity pay for retired officials.
“That’s good for the Sangguniang opisyales, I was a barangay captain of Sambag 2 for so long and after your service rendered pila katuig ako gani 25 years, wala mi madawat at least from the government so its a good move but need ni siya ma-decide sa majority sa konseho,” Wenceslao said in an interview on Wednesday, November 6.
However, he said a need for a thorough review as part of the city’s annual budget process. The council will begin budget hearings on November 11, with discussions expected to conclude by November 29.