Despite the "no budget-no hiring" policy of the Mayor, several casual employees still complain that they have not been paid their salaries, during an inquiry conducted yesterday by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod.

Councilor Lyndon Caña said there appears to be a problem of discipline in the personnel of City Hall who continue to engage the services of people without proper requirements, like appointment papers. Whether the Mayor knows it or not is something he has to find out and remedy or else this will become a serious problem to him, he said.

During the hearing it was found out that many casuals, like the traffic enforcers, have been hired without an appointment from Mayor Evelio Leonardia. He said their services have been continuously requested and hired by persons from the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office and yet they have not been paid for several months. In 2004 there were 64 traffic enforcers whose services were engaged without appointments but eventually 42 were absorbed, leaving only 17. The remaining 17 traffic enforcers are asking to be paid for the services they have rendered from August to December 2004.

Aside from the 17, there are 31 traffic enforcers who also rendered services since March 2005 and some had been only paid for one or two months while others have not been paid for six months. Although they do not have appointments, they are assigned by the officers of the BTAO regularly to their posts undertaking traffic duties.

The traffic enforcers claimed that they were hired by Executive Assistant Shim Abao and former BTAO head Eduardo Sanicas.

Mario Solibio, a job order casual, has no appointment but he claims he has been hired from January to March as Traffic Assistant and has been issued a stub of citation tickets.

Roque Zuñiga, a guard detailed at the Libertad Market, told the SP that he was paid from July to December 2004 but did not receive his salary from March to September 2005. Zuñiga claimed he was assured by Executive Assistant Othello Ramos that he will be paid.

The SP will schedule another inquiry because notices or copies of the casual-related resolution passed first week of October was not sent by the SP Secretariat to the executive because all their photocopying machines have broken down.*CGS

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