Osmeña Accuses City Mayor as ‘Unfair’

Former lawmaker Tomas R. Osmeña accused Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama as unfair to poor city employees who were terminated from their jobs in the City Hall because of political reasons and ignored their request for the monetization of their leave credits.

Osmeña said Rama prioritized the same request of a few city officials who are known to be his allies in Team Rama.
The former City mayor criticized the City Hall officials saying “If they really care about the poor people, why they don’t care about the people who were terminated by Rama?

“Daghan kaayo nga akong mga tawo nga ilang gitangtang why they don’t stand up for them?”, Osmeña said.

“Ngano nga nauna man ang mga dagkong opisyal unya ang akong mga tawo nga gitangtang nga dili na sila makabutang og pagkaon sa ilang table wala tagda,” he added.

City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas confirmed that her office had monetized part of the leave credits of Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella and Eustaquio Cesa, who used to be the head of the City Assessor’s Office.

Cuevas did not give any explanation why the monetization of the leave credits of Labella and Cesa had been prioritized by her office.

“Wala man ko’y gibalibaran sa request for the monetization of the leave credits, basta makakompleto lang sa gikinahanglan nga dukomento,” the city treasurer said.

Osmeña questioned the “unfair” treatment of some officials who were associated with his local political party, Type O.

“Nganong giprioritize man nila ang mga opisyal unya ang atong mga traffic enforcers nga nagserbisyo for 10 to 15 years, but natangtang kay sila mga Type-O og gagmay ra unta ang ilang leave credits wala giprioritize? Sus, mga hypocrite g’yud sila,” Osmeña said.

Labella explained that he requested for the monetization of his leave credits amounting to about P200,000 so he could help some of those victimized by typhoon Yolanda.

According to Labella that days after typhoon Yolanda hit Cebu City last November 8, he received so many solicitations for help from the calamity victims.

“My salary was not enough. I just could not disregard the pitiful sight of victims who came to my office asking for galvanized iron sheets, wood, nails and other construction materials.”

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) allows the monetization of leave credits of government officials and employees, subject to savings of the government office concerned.

The DBM policy is that the funds for the implementation of the monetization of vacation leave/service credits shall be charged against any savings of the concerned office.