MORE than 1,200 employees of the Cebu Provincial Government will receive a “Christmas bonus” of P40,000 after the Provincial Board approved on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, the second supplemental budget.
Sugbo News, the official media arm of Cebu Provincial Government, reported on Tuesday, Dec. 19, that the supplemental budget has a funding allocation of P81.7 million to finance the Christmas bonus of 1,290 elected, appointed, permanent, casual and co-terminus employees.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia certified the supplemental budget as urgent. The PB approved it on first, second and third readings in a single-day session.
Sixth District PB Member Glenn Soco sponsored the supplemental budget.
Employees will receive the Christmas bonus within the week or before Christmas day.
Recipients
Employees include those who are in the executive and legislative branches, as well as those assigned to income-generating enterprises and social services providers such as the Capitol-run north and south bus terminals and 16 provincial and district hospitals, among others.
The P25,000 of the P40,000 Christmas bonus is covered by the Collective Bargaining Agreement Incentive, while the remaining P15,000 is sourced from the Service Recognition Incentive that was earlier authorized by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Administrative Order 12.
The remaining 2,010 job order employees of the Capitol will receive P15,000 as premium and gratuity pay subject to Commission on Audit-Department of Budget Management Joint Circular 2, series of 2020.
In the same report, PB Member Red Duterte said the source of funds comes from the savings of the Provincial Government this year.
“This also goes to show how efficiently the Cebu Provincial Government works, kay daku-dako gyud tag savings, mao na ang gihapak sa incentives sa atong mga empleyado,” Duterte said in the report.
(The amount of money it saved only goes to show how efficiently the Cebu Provincial Government works, and then it used the savings to fund the incentives.)
“For me, the employees of the Cebu Provincial Government are deserving (of the bonus) for working very hard and for doing the best this year,” he said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
Duterte rendered the committee report on behalf of the committee on budget and appropriations.