BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Vice Mayor Renato Malabor Jr. and his allies at the Sangguniang Bayan of Isabela in Negros Occidental, gave assurance on the immediate approval of the supplemental budget number 3 being asked by Mayor Irene Montilla, that includes salaries of 447 job order employees, as soon as she submit their names and contracts.
Montilla blamed the Sangguniang Bayan of Isabela for the non-payment of salaries of job order employees since October 15 this year.
If they will furnish us the list of job order casuals, the budget is good as approved, Vice Mayor Malabor stressed during a press conference on November 20, which also attended by his uncle, Councilor Francis Malabor, SB Members Henry Foscablo and Jonel Magallon.
Vice Mayor Malabor and three councilors debunked speculations that the non-approval of the supplemental budget has something to do with politics.
Montilla and Vice Mayor Malabor are running against each other for the mayoralty post of Isabela town in the May 2022 elections.
Stressing that he also sympathized with the plight of job order casuals, Vice Mayor Malabor called on the executive department to join them in working for the solution of the problem.
Foscablo, who chairs the committee on Laws, also disclosed that they are even proposing the increase of daily wages of job order casuals by P100 per day, from P250 to P350.
Asked why only now that they are asking for the list of job order employees, Magallon, who chairs the committee on Personnel, said that they have been doing it since 2019, and not only now.
Atty. Jose Max Ortiz, counsel of Councilor Malabor, in his letter to Mayor Montilla, said his client and other Isabela municipal councilors were simply asking for the complete list of job order workers, their respective rates and number of days required to render duty from January 1 to October 2021, as basis for the computation of their total salaries and wages.
Under Section 277 of the Local Government Code, Ortiz said that the hiring of job order worker must not exceed six months.
They do not see any reason why your office will not submit the list as these workers are in fact, clamoring for the early release of their salaries, Ortiz added.*
