SO let me get something straight.
A Charter Day bonus is the same thing as a Charter Service Incentive. That is, according to the Commission on Audit (COA), which, by the way, flagged the release of P71.698 million for the Charter Day bonus of Cebu City officials and employees in 2023. Back then, they received P15,000 each.
Now, for those who have been following the news, the executive department has proposed the first supplemental budget for this year that will cover, among other things, the proposed Charter Day bonus of P35,000. With a total budget of P150 million, it is more than twice the amount the COA flagged in 2023.
It’s no wonder then that Councilor Mary Ann de los Santos is worried.
“I’m very concerned because the notice of suspension pertaining to the P15,000 bonus, and now we are increasing it to P35,000. I have no issues with that amount, and I support it. But how do you reconcile that, considering we received this notice of suspension before the release of the P35,000,” she said during the council’s discussion on the appropriation and feasibility of increasing the 2025 Charter Day bonus to P35,000.
But then Assistant City Administrator Mary Rose Lubino came back with a typical answer for a lawyer: the COA flagged the appropriation of a service incentive, not the amount of the bonus.
Which left me scratching my head.
Oh, I get it. She meant that the commission suspended the employee service incentives not because it cost the City P71.698 million but because of a lack of documentation.
You see, the incentive is usually granted “based on the officials’ and the employees’ performance in the individual performance commitment and review.” And so the COA is looking for the report outlining the specific contributions of each recipient.
Apparently, there are criteria for dishing out incentives. As there should be. After all, lest everybody forget, the money the City Government is using to cover the budget allocation to pat itself on the back comes from the taxes that hard-working people have no choice but to pay.
According to the COA, the incentive or bonus could not be granted “without proof of extraordinary suggestions, inventions, superior accomplishments, or other significant personal contributions by the recipients.”
Well, the City could say the suggestion to grant a P35,000 Charter Day bonus was, by itself, already extraordinary.
Councilor Noel Wenceslao, committee on budget and finance chairman, had a more novel explanation to justify the use of taxpayers’ money.
He said, “the mechanics for releasing this year’s Charter Day service incentives, which include the proposed P35,000 bonus for each employee, are different from the process used in granting the 2023 Charter Day bonus.”
He said the basis for this year’s service incentive was the Department of Health’s recognition of the City’s commitment to barangay health workers as well as the City’s landing in the top three in compliance with the National Immunization Program. He also pointed to the acknowledgment from the National Nutrition Council.
If that’s the case, then only those who had direct involvement in these achievements deserve a service incentive; perhaps a plaque and maybe a small cash token, but certainly not P35,000.
Again, if the City insists on granting the P35,000 bonus for all city officials and employees, then it will have to provide a report outlining the specific contributions of each recipient. Otherwise, this year’s service incentive will share the same fate as the service incentive in 2023.
Then you have the Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence committee that said the incentive is not an award or recognition but “a form of motivation and encouragement for City Hall employees to perform better.”
It should have added, “at the expense of the taxpayers of Cebu City.”
So aside from the salary they receive every month and other government perks, do Cebu City officials and employees also require a financial nudge so they can perform their jobs to the best of their ability?
To quote a 1987 Kylie Minogue song, “I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky….”