TO SAVE P1.7 MILLION A MONTH

THE Dagupan City government has lowered the boom finally on its bloated bureaucracy by issuing an order terminating all 285 emergency workers and 27 consultants ostensibly as a prelude to the planned reorganization program and to generate at least P1 million in savings every month.

City Administrator Rafael Baraan, however, clarified last Friday that the order has been amended and reduced the number of terminated employees to only 50% of the total number. The order issued by Mayor Benjamin Lim was made effective at the close of office hours of August. 31.

Baraan said the reorganization plan is now on its final stage prior to its implementation and pointed out that the termination of emergency workers forms part of the whole reorganization process.

But city hall insiders have indicated that the termination move was a desperate move on the part of the Lim administration to stave off an impending financial crisis in the city.

The termination order was issued despite appeals from department heads not to let go of workers who are handling critical and essential services. They have warned of paralysis of operations if the workers are terminated.

But Baraan clarified that services rendered by the city government will not be affected as the positions held by EWs will be replaced by regular employees. At the same time, Baraan clarified that the EWs who handle vital and highly specialized positions will not be terminated, citing the case of traffic enforcers of the Public order and Safety Office (POSO) who underwent long training before they were deployed to man traffic.

POSO chief Robert Erfe Mejia told the PUNCH Thursday that his men are and will still continue performing with their normal duties as traffic enforcers despite the memorandum.

“Tuloy pa rin ang duty hours nila until further advice,” Mejia said.

One department head who is poised to countermand the order is City legal officer Geraldine Baniqued who said she has only one EW assigned to her office and had advised him to stay put.

“If the city could not afford to pay my worker, I will shoulder his salaries, rather than see him go,” said Baniqued.

Baraan pointed that “we have to give up most of them temporarily,” adding that the EWs will be given the first crack to fill in regular positions later during the reorganization process.

About 65 to 70 percent of the 285 EWs will be terminated by the city government before the massive streamlining of the bureaucracy.

Baraan said that during the reorganization, only 400 plantilla positions from the original 600 positions will be filled up, adding that there will be no emergency worker during the period.

City Budget Officer Ildefonso Calimlim, in an earlier interview by the PUNCH, said that emergency workers and consultants alone eat up P1.7 million monthly from the city coffer.

Calimlim said wages and salaries of the emergency workers and consultants were not included in the city’s 2006 budget so the city has to use savings from various offices from time to time in order to pay for their salaries.

Baraan said that the action will allow plantilla position holders who were then being maximized by their superiors a chance to shine and perform their duties efficiently.

The poor state of the city’s financial affairs was underscored by the Commission on Audit report that was published in national media where Dagupan was listed as among the top 10 among 117 cities in the Philippines having the lowest net income.

The COA report stated that Dagupan retained only five per cent or P18, 901,000 net income from its total income of P357, 404,000 in 2005. – AQL

Dagupan in frantic
search for money

This is a case for the “Deal or no deal” TV show.

The Philippine National Railways (PNR) has indicated that it cannot afford to pay the amount due and has offered a deal: to gave up its property to write off its tax accountabilities.

And, in a frantic effort to improve its financial state of affairs, the Dagupan City government is now willing to consider the deal: real estate as payment for unpaid taxes due to the city.

The office of Mayor Benjamin Lim submitted this proposal to the Sangguniang Panlungsod which is eyeing the Rio Horno property of PNR in barangay Pantal as payment for the latter’s unpaid real property tax (RPT) in the amount of P25 million.

But Councilor Netu Tamayo, a lawyer, says “No deal”. He objected to the proposal since the city, he said, could soon end up empty-handed after he found the Rio Horno property to be occupied by several establishments and houses put up by informal settlers.

He warned that the city government will certainly lose in the bargain because recovering the land from present occupants can take years and even decades of tedious litigation.

Rodolfo Fernandez, an administrative officer in the office of the city mayor, informed the city council that Rio Horno is the only identified property of PNR that the city can consider in exchange for tax due from PNR.

He added that in addition to the Rio Horno property, the city would need some portions of the PNR as road right of way for the construction of the proposed Perez Boulevard Extension up to barangay Tebeng.

Tamayo dismissed the plan of the city government to use a road at Rio Horno as an alternative road in order to decongest traffic because the property can only allow a six-meter wide road.

He noted that there are eight buildings at Rio Horno and all these can not just be demolished without their owners putting up a fight in court.

Tamayo dared the PNR that if it really wants to write off its unpaid RPT to the city, it must first remove the occupants at Rio Horno before turning over the property to the city.

However, City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued expressed doubt that PNR would be willing to eject the occupants of Rio Horno property first before turning it over to the city.

Despite Tamayo’s objection, the SP’s committees on laws and ordinances and judiciary are set to study and consider the proposed deal.

It might be a deal after all. – AQL

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