City councilors of Makati will provide financial assistance to their staff while their salaries are on hold because of the refusal of Vice Mayor Romulo Pena Jr. to sign checks and vouchers covering the March 16-31 and April 1 – 15 payroll period.
“The members of the city council have agreed to provide temporary relief to our staff who are now burdened by the delay in the release of their salaries. Even though we, too, have not received our salaries, we cannot ignore their plight, as some of them came to us crying while some even brought along their children to seek help,” said Councilor Marie Alethea Casal-Uy.
As vice mayor, Pena signs the payrolls and checks for the city councilors and their staff with regular/co-terminus status of employment.
The Office of the Ombudsman suspended Mayor Junjun Binay over the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II and replaced him with Pena, but the Court of Appeals issued a temporary restraining order preventing the suspension order.
Pena insisted he is the acting mayor and he’s just following orders from the Ombudsman and the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Uy said “We remain firm in our stand that the Temporary Restraining Order issued by the court continues to prevail over the legal opinion on which the Vice Mayor has been basing his actions. Makati has only one mayor, and that is Mayor Binay,” she said.
The councilors appealed to Pena to respect the rights of workers of the Sangguniang Panglungsod to just and timely compensation and sign documents so that 82 regular employees and their families would not be deprived any longer of their prime source of livelihood.
Uy said the councilors will be giving each of their staff financial aid from P3,000 to P5,000 out of their own pockets to help tide them over while waiting for their salaries to be released.
“Practically all of them rely on their salaries to pay household bills and buy basic necessities,” she said. “As frontline public servants of the Sanggunian, they have duly rendered their services and willfully denying them their wages is an injustice to them and their families.”
Uy sought to clarify Pena’s statement to the media why members of the city council have not appointed an acting vice mayor to sign checks and payrolls to avoid the delay, which she said, perceived as an attempt to pass on the blame to the city councilors.
“To date, we still have one vice mayor, and that is Mr. Kid Pena. We still have 17 councilors, and Vice Mayor Pena is still the presiding officer, so there is no vacancy to fill up,” she added.
Uy warned Pena he will be sanctioned for habitual absences during council’s sessions. She said Pena has already been absent for two consecutive sessions even as the council still has a number of pending ordinances and resolutions to deliberate on and pass.
Under the Internal Rules and Procedures (IRP) of the city council, which Uy said were approved before the new city council assumed office in 2013, any member, including the presiding officer, if absent for three consecutive sessions can be fined and sanctioned.
Uy expressed hope that by Monday, when the oral arguments of both camps will be heard by the Court of Appeals , Pena will be ‘enlightened.’
The appellate court has scheduled hearings on the petitions for certiorari contesting the suspension order and contempt charges filed by the Binay camp against Peña, DILG and DOJ on Monday and Tuesday, March 30 and 31.