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[av_heading heading=’Bacolod officer to snub SP Ecola probe’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
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BACOLOD City – A city hall personnel is pissed that the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) is looking into the alleged non-release of the emergency cost of living allowance (Ecola) of public school teachers.
Mario Espaniola, auditor at the Management and Accounting Services Office, will not attend the committee hearing scheduled at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
The SP committee on education, led by Councilor Renecito Novero, is looking into claims that public school teachers have not received three quarters’ worth of Ecola in 2016.
Bacolod City Public School Teachers Federation president Gualberto Dajao had said they also want Espaniola assigned to another office.
Dajao claimed Espaniola was blocking the release of their Ecola and humiliated them when they followed up about their allowance.
Novero invited Espaniola to the hearing.
Yesterday, Espaniola confirmed receiving from the office of Novero on Monday a notice on the scheduled committee hearing.
“Nag-init ang ulo ko (I was pissed when I received it),” said the auditor.
“Sang Jan. 13 nga sabton ko ang issue, indi sila gusto. Ngaa karon ma-demand sila sang committee hearing? Bahala sila sa buhay nila (I wanted to answer the issue on Jan. 13, but the teachers would have none of it. And now they want a committee hearing? I’m letting them be),” he said.
Espaniola wrote Novero that he cannot attend the committee hearing.
In his letter, dated Jan. 24, Espaniola cited “health reasons” for snubbing the inquiry. He also suggested that Novero read the Audit Observation Memorandum from the Commission on Audit (COA).
He stressed that he was not blocking or delaying the Ecola release. In fact, he said, the latest Ecola release was made last week — but only the teachers hired in 1997 and earlier were given their full P6,000 per-quarter share.
Each public school teacher gets a P2,000 Ecola every month: P700 from the Special Education Fund (SEF) and P1,300 from the general fund.
But Espaniola, citing the COA memo, clarified that only teachers hired in 1997 and earlier are entitled to the P2,000-a-month Ecola, while those hired in 1998 and later may not receive the SEF allocation.
Espaniola blamed former city accountant Eduardo Ravena, now executive assistant to the mayor, for the mess. He said Ravena released the same amount to all teachers despite the COA memo.
The city hall personnel insisted he is not letting the same thing happen now for fear of a possible notice of disallowance from COA./PN
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