BAGUIO CITY – The City Council tasked the city’s local finance committee to study the possibility of the city government providing additional financial assistance to the barangays for the grant of a uniform hazard pay for barangay officials and employees.
The decision was reached by the members of the city legislative body upon learning there are many barangays in the city that have limited funds, thus, the said barangays have no more source of funds to grant the prescribed hazard pay of barangay officials and employees who had been working round-the-clock during this Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine as part of the management of the dreaded Corona Virus Disease (COVID) 2019 situations in the different parts of the island.
Under the declaration of a Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine, barangay officials are charged with numerous duties and responsibilities as frontliners to prevent the spread of COVID in their areas of jurisdiction.
Based on pertinent provisions of Administrative Order No. 26 which prescribes the rules and regulations for the grant of hazard pay to employees in local governments, including those in the barangays, who physically report during the quarantine period, and have adopted similar work arrangements as provided in pertinent rules and regulations shall be determined by their respective Sanggunian depending on the local government’s financial capability at rates not exceeding P500 per day per person, subject to the personal services limitation in local government budgets under the provisions of Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of the Philippines in the case of regular personnel, and available maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) allotment in the case of contract of service or job order workers, and chargeable against the fiscal year 2020 local government funds.
Should a local government have insufficient funds to fully cover the COVID-19 hazard pay at the rate of P500 per day per person, a lower but uniform rate may be granted for all qualified personnel.
Concerned barangay officials claimed almost all of their funds have already been appropriated for specific purposes and had been passed on review by the local legislative body, thus, they will no longer have available funds to grant the prescribed hazard pay for officials and employees that worked during the quarantine period.
City councilors requested the city’s local finance committee to look into the available funds which the city government can provide as financial assistance to the barangays so that the same can appropriate such grant to defray the funds required for the hazard pay of the officials and employees that spent their time, effort and even their resources, to serve their constituents during this enhanced community quarantine in Luzon.
The financial assistance to the barangays will be over and above the recent appropriation of P150 million earlier approved to implement programs, projects and activities of the local government to combat the possible spread of the deadly virus amidst the increasing number of cases in the city over the past several days..
The local legislative body will be awaiting the recommendation of the local finance committee on what steps to undertake to allow the barangays to have the needed funds to grant the prescribed hazard pay for officials and employees who worked during the quarantine.
By Dexter A. See