Capitol employees may receive not less than P50K bonus

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Employees of the provincial government of Negros Occidental, except for job order (JO) and contract of service (COS) workers, may receive an additional bonus of not less than P50,000 this Christmas season, according to Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz.

Diaz said the additional bonuses for regular, casual employees and co-terminus employees, as well as in plantilla positions, will include the Collective Negotiation Incentives (CNI) at P25,000, Service Recognition Incentive (P10,000), Productivity Enhancement Incentive (P5,000), and Performance Based Bonus, which is equivalent to 65 percent salary of an employee.

This is on top of the 14th-month pay, which is now being received by the Capitol employees, Diaz stressed.

Capitol employees received P65,000 in Christmas bonuses in 2021.

Diaz also announced that COS and JO workers of the provincial government will also receive a gratuity pay of P3,000 each, as well as food packs.

Employees of the Negros Occidental provincial government received their 13th-month pay in May 2022.

Renelo Lastierre, president of the Progressive Alliance of Capitol Employees (PACE), however, said that Capitol employees are “still privileged” despite the lesser additional bonus if compared to 2021.

Lastierre said Capitol employees will still receive a bigger additional bonus compared to other local government units in Negros Occidental “because we have a CNI, being a duly-accredited union.”

On his part Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson has ruled out the giving of P25,000 for the IBES (Incentive Benefit for Exemplary Services), following disallowances from the Commission on Audit several times.

“We will be giving only what is allowed. We will stop the policy of giving Incentive Benefit for Exemplary Services (IBES), knowing that it will be denied,” Lacson said.

Should they win their arguments before the Supreme Court, they will give it again, the governor said.