CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama approved yesterday additional allowances for city prosecutors and agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7.
The approval came after City Administrator Jose Mari Poblete and City Attorney Joseph Bernaldez submitted their final proposal to the mayor.
The two city officials were tasked by Rama to assess the increase the city prosecutors and NBI agents should get.
They earlier proposed to give City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon and Regional State Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane P10,000 each, assistant city prosecutors P8,000 each and NBI 7 agents P5,000 each.
But Poblete and Bernaldez found that the amount allocated for allowances of city fiscals and aid to regional state prosecutors and police and NBI personnel this year is only P5,180,137.33, which is just 32.28 percent of the budgeted P16,046,000.
The two officials said that even if it is already more than halfway of the year, the fact that spending of the budget has not reached half gave the city the option to increase the allowances.
Poblete and Bernaldez recommended that Sellon and Gubalane be given P12,000 each and the other prosecutors P10,000 each monthly.
The officials also agreed to give P8,000 to the NBI 7 director, P7,000 to the executive officer and P5,000 to agents and investigators.
The city is currently giving only P5,000 as monthly allowance to city fiscals and P1,000 to NBI personnel.
With 36 members in the prosecution office (30 in the city and 6 in the region) and 12 agents in NBI 7, the increase will amount P429,000 a month, City Hall said.
For the remaining six months of 2010, the required funding for the new monthly stipend will only be P2,574,000, which is still below the P10.8 million unspent budget for that purpose.
The new allowances will take effect this month.
City officials said the officials deserve the allowances for their roles in keeping peace.
Poblete and Bernaldez said the giving of allowances is authorized by the Local Government Code.
The increase came after the allowances of judges in the different courts in the city were increased earlier this year.
At the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), Director Patrocinio Comendador Jr. says policemen can get a P1,000 increase in their City Hall allowance if they pass the monthly gun proficiency test.
Comendador said the offer is meant to encourage police to maintain or improve their marksmanship. He said he will be submitting his recommendation to Rama.
He said, however, that the mayor already approved the increase in principle during a meeting last Saturday.
Comendador included in the recommendation the inclusion of CCPO’s 24 non-uniformed personnel in the incentive.