BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – There is no need to layoff job orders (JOs) and casual employees despite budget cuts, according to Negros Occidental governor Eugenio Jose Lacson.
Lacson made the assurance as various local government units (LGUs) in the country struggle with the 14.47 percent cut made by the Department of Budget and Management to the National Tax Allotment (NTA) shares of all LGUs for 2023.
“What we could do is to review if it’s material or necessary in our hiring of employees, are they really doing the job they are supposed to do? We cannot be lenient now because our budget is lower next year,” Lacson pointed out.
The proposed provincial budget is lower by P766,355,918 compared to the 2022 budget – a result of the 12.7 percent reduction of its NTA from the national government.
The provincial government has about 1,600 employees classified as JOs, casuals and contract of service (COS).
On the other hands, in Bacolod City, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the city government will reduce by more than half its JO employees to address the P302-million cut in the city government’s NTA for 2023.
That means Bacolod’s share of P2 billion this year will drop to P1.7 billion in 2023, or a cut of P302.6 million.
The city mayor said they are reducing the number of JO workers to 2,700 in 2023, or by more than 50 percent.
This will enable the city government to reduce JO salaries to P300 million in 2023 from the P625 million allotted by the previous administration, the mayor pointed out./PN