ILOILO City – Due to lack of funds, the city government slashed the salary of its traffic aides, according to Jeck Conlu, head of the Public Safety and Transportation Management Office (PSTMO).
The city has more or less 320 traffic auxiliaries.
Recently, some disclosed they were receiving compensation for only 20 days of work when they were actually working the whole month.
“Nagapangayo lang ko anay sang pag-intindi sa ila kay ara ‘ta sa pandemic, ara ‘ta sa crisis,” Conlu said.
From P500, the daily rate of traffic aides was slashed to P400.
Conlu said before the P500 rate daily, traffic auxiliaries were only receiving an honorarium of P6,000 per month regardless of how many days they worked.
In 2019 their daily rate was set to P500 daily for 26 to 27 days of duty or P13,000 to P13,500 a month.
But in May 2020, P100 was slashed from the P500 daily rate due to lack of funds, said Conlu.
“Ang city government naga-balance man sang iya funds,” he explained.
“Ibalik ta gid ang amo ‘na nga (P500 daily) rate once may available fund na. Subong agwantahon ta lang anay,” said Conlu.
He stressed the importance of the traffic aides’ working 26 to 27 days monthly.
“Indi pwede pabay-an ang karsada so gin-ayo ko sila. Anyway, sang nag-ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) kita halin March asta sang July (last year), waay man (sila) nag-duty…sa balay monitor lang sa area kon ano…at least nakapahuway man sila so gin-ayo ko sila nga ipakita ta lang anay suporta sa aton gobyerno subong nga may krisis ‘ta,” Conlu said./PN
