City lawyer heeds leave recall order, processes early retirement papers

CEBU City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo yesterday cut short his leave and showed up for work in compliance with the order of acting Mayor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña to recall all approved applications for leave of absence.

Castillo, however, said he was at City Hall to process his papers for his early retirement from public service.

“I was requested to be part of the transition team, but there are already no accountabilities on my part. All of the actions of the City Legal Office, opinions, case files, and documents are all stored in a central file. All the records are intact,” he told reporters yesterday.

He said that Lyndon Basan, City Legal Office’s assistant department head, will be the one coordinating with the transition team as well as City Hall lawyer Eleodoro Diaz, who was appointed by Acting Mayor Osmeña as her special assistant for the City Legal Office.

Osmeña issued a memorandum recalling all employees who were on leave, especially the department heads, to ensure continuity in the delivery of basic services and provide a smooth transition to the new administration of her husband, incoming Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Castillo said he believed that since he was appointed by suspended Mayor Michael Rama, his official functions as city attorney should also cease along with the mayor’s suspension.

Castillo, 42, said he will avail of an early retirement after being in government service for 19 years.

Castillo was with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from 1997 until 2005. He moved to City Hall as a city lawyer and was appointed as head of the City Legal Office by Mayor Rama in June 2013.

Meanwhile, Acting Mayor Osmeña said City Hall employees merely need to justify their leave applications so that they can be allowed to go on their planned vacations.

“They can ask for exemption. I don’t expect everybody to be happy (about the memo). There’s always another way. There’s always an alternative.

Instead of complaining, why don’t they just use that alternative?” Osmeña said after hearing about City Hall employees complaining about her order.

Osmeña said she was waiting for the Human Resource Development Office (HRDO) to furnish her office with a list of all job order personnel (JOs) in the city.

She said, initially, they have heard that City Hall has almost 400 JOs, whose salaries are charged to the city’s calamity funds.

She said they also would like to verify reports that some JOs are getting a salary of more than P800 to P1,000 per day.

“That’s why we want to find out. That’s why we want to have a list of all the JOs. And what particular project they’re supposed to be working on because as we know, JOs are supposed to be project-based,” she said.