Cebu City gov’t to terminate non-employee heads of offices

Cebu City Administrator Floro Casas, Jr. CDN Digital photo | Delta Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Cebu City government is terminating heads of offices, including special offices, who are not organic employees of the city. 

This is done in response to the advice of the City Legal Office that heads of offices must be employees of the city government. 

City Administrator Floro Casas, Jr., said in a press conference on July 7, 2021, that this is the reason why  Local School Board chairperson Raddy Diola was removed from his post. 

READ: Cebu City school board chair ‘unceremoniously’ booted off

Diola said in early statements that he was unceremoniously booted out from his position with not so much as an advisory. 

Casas explained that the memorandum appointing new LSB chairperson, Melissa dela Cruz, should suffice for Diola’s removal. 

However, the city administrator clarified that the termination is not exclusive to Diola as more heads who are non-employees will also be removed from their posts. 

“Prerogative na ni Mayor (Edgardo) Labella ang mopili kung kinsa iya heads. Kana siya nga desisyon niabot na siya after sa legal opinion nga dapat nga mo-represent ni mayor sa mga offices or special offices dapat organic employees sa city government,” said Casas. 

Considering that these heads are handling funds of the city government, there is a need to hold the heads accountable for handling such important matters.  Since Mayor Labella holds accountability as an utmost priority for assigning heads, Casas said the mayor decided to heed the legal opinion. 

“These offices will be handling funds. Wala man na silay accountability. Nauna lang si Sir Raddy but we are actually reviewing all offices,” said Casas. 

Not political

The city administrator said that Diola was once offered a tenure but he refused as he did not want to accept a salary. 

Casas clarified that the removal of non-employee heads is not a form of “loyalty checks” by the administration nor is it a political move. 

He said that it was being conducted to have more accountable officials in the city’s offices. 

Despite the statements of Diola that he and Casas do not see eye-to-eye in principles, Casas said that he has nothing against Diola. 

He said that the decision was made by the mayor and he was only executing the decision of the mayor. 

Although there is no definite number of non-employee officials to be terminated, Casas said that more will be following suit in the coming weeks. 

/bmjo