Talisay HR Denies Paying Workers P175 Daily

Talisay City’s Human Resource (HR) Office head Hazel Bathan denied reports that there are contractual or job order (JO) workers at the city hall who are paid way below the minimum.

Bathan, who still sits as HRO head despite the current administration’s effort to replace her, said each JO still receives P250 each. Bathan cannot, however, give an exact number of JOs that the city has employed since Mayor Johnny delos Reyes assumed post last July 1.

Reports had it that the new administration has hired almost 2,000 JOs already, and to cut cost, it has reportedly resorted to giving P175 as daily wage to the workers.

Each of the nine opposition councilor is granted with 50 JO quota, while the three from the opposition are reportedly enjoying a limitless number of JOs under their names. The mayor and the vice mayor have also reportedly hired at least 500 apiece, swelling the number of JOs to close to 2,000.

In the past years, the Commission on Audit had questioned the city’s misspending of funds by hiring more JOs. At that time, under the tutelage of then Mayor Socrates Fernandez, the JOs were 800, and the city was paying at least P3M for their monthly salary.