DAVAO CITY (Updated) -- Thousands of contractual employees of Davao City arrived at the City Hall grounds Saturday morning to disprove allegations of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has 11,000 "ghost employees".
Human Resource and Management Office (HRMO) head Erwin Alparaque said there were only 9,864 job order and contract of services personnel of City Hall in 2016.
"These are the people with contracts and specific work assignment based on the various approved programs or projects with approved appropriations or budget," he added.
As of 11 a.m. Saturday, May 7, the list of employees already totalled 7,500. More employees, even as far as Paquibato District, arrived at the poblacion area to confirm that they are working at City Hall.
Arman Hisula, 31, a maintenance staff of the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) from Malabog, Paquibato District said that he would love to spend his day off at home but instead went to City Hall to show his support to Duterte.
"Kinahanglan man gud ni Mayor amoang tabang karon maong niadto gyud mi (Mayor Duterte really needed our support; thus, we came here)," Hisula added.
On Thursday, Trillanes filed plunder charges before the Ombudsman against Duterte, who allegedly hired some 11,000 ghost employees in the city.
He said the alleged non-existent 11,000 contractual employees can be translated to P708 million of budget.
The employees, according to Trillanes, were all hired in 2014 during the incumbency of Duterte.
Davao City administrator Jesus Melchor Quitain, meanwhile, bared on Saturday that Trillanes' figures are inaccurate.
"He had his research but those were wrong," Lawyer Quitain added.
He continued that the records were from that of year 2014 and clarified that as the city progresses, they would have to hire more manpower to give efficient service to the people.
"There was no evidence to prove that there are ghost employees here," he said. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)