Ermita employees fear loss of jobs

EMPLOYEES of the Ermita barangay hall are scheduled to collect their pay for the second half of the month on July 30.

But they expressed concern on the security of their tenure following the suspension of seven barangay officials including Barangay Captain Mary Rizaldy Miral starting on July 19.

“Nabalaka gyud mi pag suspenso nila. Pero kana sad nabalaka sad mi sa mga opisyal nga wala dinha kay parehas man ming tanan dinhi naay ginabuhi nga pamilya (We are worried with the suspension of our barangay officials. We are worried for them and for ourselves because all of us have families to feed),” said property custodian Lea Hermosa.

But Hermosa expressed faith that acting Barangay Captain Efe Rupinta will ensure the continued employment of their over 100 barangay workers even if she is left to run the affairs of the barangay hall single-handedly.

As of Friday, Rupinta said, barangay operations remained smooth and garbage was collected from their different sitios.

Rupinta said an allocation for their employees pay and for garbage collection has been included in their 2018 budget of at least P1 million.

“We already gave the assurance to our workers that we will continue to deliver all basic services and pay their salaries because we still have signatories,” said Rupinta.

But Rupinta admitted that she is barred from making new disbursements and from entering into new transactions because she and SK Federation President Rica Jaime are constrained from holding council sessions to pass barangay resolutions or ordinances. /USJ-R Intern Gerald Vincent Francisco