Raps filed vs Angeles City Hall unionists

ANGELES CITY — More trouble is brewing at City Hall.

This, after Vice Mayor Ricardo Zalamea, apparently siding with Mayor Carmelo Lazatin, filed with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) yesterday charges of "neglect of duty, misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interests of the service" against officers and members of the City Hall union, the Association of Government Employees for a New and Dynamic Angeles City (Agenda).

Eighty union members, ranging from utility workers to budget officers, were named in Zalamea’s complaint. The unionists, led by Agenda president Isabelita Ruiz, were rapped for staging an "illegal picket, protest and rally" at the City Hall lobby last Sept. 17 and 18.

The employees’ actions were in protest of Lazatin’s non-payment of their P5,000 GMA bonus last December. They accused Lazatin of breaking an agreement he signed last February where he vowed to release the bonuses.

Zalamea said the unionists "prevented other employees from entering City Hall by blocking the gate (of the City Hall compound) and the main entrance" last Sept. 17, thus "disrupting public service."

The following day, Zalamea said the protesting workers walked out of their offices, staged a protest rally at the main lobby," and allegedly "induced and coerced other employees to join them in their illegal activities."

The protest actions paralyzed the operations of City Hall.

Lazatin, however, ignored the employees’ protests and initially sought the opinion of the Department of the Interior and Local Government if the P1.4 million in savings of various city government offices could be used for the bonuses.

Agenda leaders, however, insisted that a P7.8-million fund released last August by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should be used for their bonuses, and not the P1.4-million savings. The bonuses would amount to some P7.2 million.

But the other day, the DBM clarified that the P7.8 million cannot be used to pay the bonuses of City Hall employees.

In a letter to Engelbert Anthony Unite, the CSC’s Central Luzon director, DBM director Elisa Salon cited Section 3.3 of Budget Circular No. 2002-4 issued on Nov. 28 last year, which stipulated that the grant of the extra cash gift last year could not be done beyond Dec. 15 of the same year.

Salon added that the circular’s Section 3.4 specified that the grant of the extra cash gift by local government units "shall be optional."

In his complaint, Zalamea said Agenda’s protest actions last Sept. 17 and 18 "gravely affected and disrupted the city government in its duty of smoothly rendering services to the public, and ultimately proved prejudicial to public interest and public service."

He cited a similar case in the past where the Supreme Court ruled that government employees are not allowed to resort to "strikes, walkouts and other temporary work stoppages."

The High Court, he added, declared that their grievances could be coursed through their respective unions or associations only by "either petitioning the Congress for the betterment of the terms and conditions of employment which are within the ambit of legislation, or negotiating with the appropriate government agencies for the improvement of those which are not fixed by law."

Agenda leaders could not be reached for comment. There are reports that they plan to file charges against Lazatin.