ILOILO City – A total of 388 excess job hires of the city government have started receiving their salaries that were not released since January.
According to Mayor Jose Espinosa III, of the 43 payrolls pending for two months because of City Treasurer Jinny Hermano’s refusal to sign them, only six remain for encoding.
“Naka-gwa na ang most of the payrolls. Subong ara na sa cash division. Anum na lang ka-payrolls ang gina-encode. Meaning to say, nagapanuweldo na kita sa aton casuals,” Espinosa announced on Wednesday.
He thanked the Office of the President, former Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go and Bureau of Local Government Finance (BGLF) regional director Gilbert Gumabay for helping resolve the matter.
Espinosa also cited Hermano whom he previously threatened of suing for insubordination.
“Ang aton casuals kinahanglan gid nila ila sweldo para ibakal pagkaon kag gatas sang ila kabataan. All is well that ends well,” said Espinosa.
After weeks of refusal, Hermano announced on Monday he was signing the payroll of the excess job hires.
However, he said he was doing so with objection and cited Section 106 of Presidential Decree 1445 or the State Audit Code of the Philippines.
Section 106 is titled “Liability for acts done by direction of superior officer.” It states: “No accountable officer shall be relieved from liability by reason of his having acted under the direction of a superior officer in paying out, applying, or disposing of the funds or property with which he is chargeable, unless prior to that act, he notified the superior officer in writing of the illegality of the payment, application, or disposition.”
Under this section, the officer directing any illegal payment or disposition of funds or property shall be held primarily liable for the loss.
According to Hermano, his signing of the job hires’ payroll was based on the recommendation of the BGLF.
He also said the Office of the City Mayor assured him of sufficient funds.
“May assurance ang Office of the Mayor. Wala nila ginlakip sa ila program of expenditures ang P74,994,000 nga kulang sa aton estimate of collectibles sa 2019 Annual Budget bilang sabat sa akon kahangawa sa kakulangan sa pundo,” said Hermano.
Hermano had been under pressure to sign the excess job hires’ pay since last month. He had no power to withhold salaries already certified by the city budget officer, city accountant and the head of the department or office, according to the City Legal Office (CLO), citing Article 344 of the Local Government Code./PN
