Cebu City officials to get salary increases

CEBU CITY — The next set of Cebu City officials will be enjoying increases in their monthly compensation.

This, as the city council adopted last Wednesday the proposed ordinance of councilor Manuel Legaspi prescribing salary adjustments for elected city officials.

In less than a month since the proposed measure was presented last May 26, the council quickly approved the ordinance in lieu of a provision in the Local Government Code which states that "no increase in compensation of the mayor, vice mayor and the Sangguniang Panlungsod members shall take effect until after the expiration of the full term of the local officials approving such an increase."

The approved ordinance will take effect on July 1.

The three-year term of the present set of elected officials, including Legaspi, will end at noon of June 30. Legaspi no longer sought for a third term in the recent polls.

Legaspi reasoned that he pushed for the salary increases of the city officials by as much as 18 percent in view of the fact that while Cebu City is a premier city, its elected officials are getting relatively smaller salaries than the elected officials of Mandaue City, also a highly urbanized city.

To date, the Cebu City councilors are receiving P23,422 monthly compensation each, while Mandaue City councilors are receiving P27,842 each.

The Local Government Code provides that the monthly compensation of city councilors of highly urbanized cities should correspond to salary grade 27, ranging from P23,422 to P27,842.

And because the Cebu City government had not exceeded the budgetary limitations on personal services as provided for in the Local Government Code, the city council passed into law Legaspi’s proposed measure which prescribed the monthly compensation of city officials based on their terms of service.

Members of the incoming city council, who will be on their first terms, will receive a monthly compensation of P23,422.

Those who will be on their second terms will get a P25,223 monthly salary, while those on their third terms will receive P27,842.

In compliance with the Local Government Code, the monthly compensation of the vice mayor also corresponds to salary grade 28, ranging from P24,359 to P28,955.

As such, Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who will be on his second term, will receive a monthly salary of P28,249. This is still relatively lower compared to the monthly salary of the vice mayor of Mandaue City which is P28,955.

The ordinance also provides that the vice mayor, who is on his first term, will get a monthly salary of P25,593, and a third-termer will receive P28,955 monthly compensation.

On the other hand, Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who will be serving his second term, will get a monthly compensation of P31,573.

Unless the ordinance is amended, a future city mayor who will serve his first term will get a monthly compensation of P30,338, and a third-termer will get P34,323. — Freeman News Service