Complainants vs Rama, ET AL.: Council OKs release of 4 workers’ salaries

CEBU, Philippines — The four City Hall employees who caused Mayor Michael Rama and seven other city officials’ six months preventive suspension will finally get the full amount of their withheld salaries after the City Council approved on Wednesday, May 15, a resolution giving green light for its release.

Councilor Noel Wenceslao, chairman of the committee on budget and finance, sponsored the resolution allocating over P1 million to cover for the six months salaries—from July to December 2023—of Filomena Atuel, Maria Almicar Diongzon, Sybil Ann Ybanez, and Chito Dela Cerna.

The amount will be charged for Personal Services under the Office of the City Administrator. Wenceslao said the City Budget Officer and the City Treasurer both have certified the availability of funds to pay for the city’s obligation to the four employees.

Aside from their basic salaries, the four employees will also get their productivity enhancement incentives for the period July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. It was suspended city administrator Collin Rosell who requested on April 24,2024, prior to the suspension order from the Office of the Ombudsman, for the release of the withheld salaries of the four employees.

Earlier, Rama ordered the immediate payment of the salaries of the workers after they sought help from the media. Rama, however, was overtaken by the anti-graft office’s order that placed him and seven others under six months preventive suspension without pay.

In a 10-page resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman found sufficient grounds to put the mayor and the other respondents under preventive suspension for grave misconduct, conduct unbecoming of public officer, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, grave abuse of authority (oppression), and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for public officials and employees.

On Monday, acting Mayor Raymond Garcia also ordered the “immediate” release of the remaining salaries of the four employees. Garcia promised that the remaining unpaid salaries will be released, at the latest, on Monday.

“First of all, I have already ordered the immediate release of their salary at the latest this Monday (May 20, 2024),” Garcia told reporters in a press conference last Monday, May 13, 2024. — /FPL (FREEMAN)