MANILA, Philippines — Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto said yesterday he hopes more local government units (LGUs) would pursue the mass regularization of city hall workers as he underscored the importance of giving local government employees dignity.
With over 2,300 city hall employees regularized and over 5,700 promoted in Pasig, Sotto said LGUs have been reaching out to ask how they would replicate similar programs.
“There are other LGUs who are reaching out, asking how we were able to do our mass regularization program… They were asking how they can do it too… in terms of budget and so on and I’m glad,” he said.
During his 2019 campaign for the mayoralty, Sotto vowed to give permanent work status to more than 7,000 job order or casual workers in city hall.
He also said earlier that the move to regularize casual workers was part of his efforts to end patronage politics in the city, alleging that his predecessor intimidated contractual workers into refraining from supporting political rivals.
Sotto reported earlier this month that 2,397 workers were given regular tenure from July 2019 to April 2022. Of this figure, 1,097 workers have served for 10 to 15 years; 556 workers, 15 to 20 years; and 304 workers, more than two decades.
The city government has also given permanent employment to 440 casual employees, who are mostly healthcare professionals. Meanwhile, the 5,783 employees were promoted and 152 job order employees given retirement benefits.
Sotto, whose administration is hinged on transparency and better employment conditions for local government workers, said he hopes that the “best practices” on human resources set by Pasig and other local governments he got the idea from would be replicated by more LGUs.
“I hope there would be more who would replicate what we have done here. That’s how good governance is, the best practices in government – from the national down to the local – should be copied,” he said.