Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday assured the city government employees that the city is prepared to give the P1,000 across-the-board additional allowance recently approved by the national government.

Leonardia said he had already signed last week an allotment advice for P6,699,000 for the additional allowance of regular and plantilla employees for January to April. He said he has given the go-signal to all concerned, especially the City Treasurer's Office, the Secretary to the Mayor and all department heads to prepare all the payrolls, so that as soon as the budget circular, which contains the guidelines arrives, they can release the amount to the employees.

The increase will take effect January 1, he added.

"We consider our employees as assets of the government machinery, that is why they have to be given priority," Leonardia said. "When we took over in 2004, there was no specific budget for the employees' additional benefits and when December came the city had to take the budget from the salary savings to give the employees their cash gift for Christmas," he said.

Leonardia said that for two successive years under his administration, the city has been allocating a certain amount in the budget to be prepared so that in case Malacañang grants the authority, the city could right away give benefits to its employees.

That is why, in 2005, the city was able to pay its employees cash gifts while other LGU's were not able to do so because of budgetary constraints, he said.

Leonardia said that in 2006, the city had anticipated this so it was able to appropriate about P28 million for the employees additional allowance.*CGS

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