Council questions nonrenewal of 100 casuals

WHAT barangay are you from and how long have you been living there?

These were just the questions asked from over 100 casual workers of Cebu City Hall who now risk the nonrenewal of their contracts.

“It’s just the mayor politicking. I don’t understand why this is being asked of us,”  said one casual worker who requested anonymity after being scheduled for interview yesterday morning.

Mayor Michael Rama issued a memorandum last week directing casual employees whose names don’t appear on his memo not to report to work until further notice.

Some of them were called to the mayor’s office yesterday for interview at the office of Belinda Navasquez, the secretary to the mayor.  A five-person panel conducts an interview of the employees.

Among them are the mayor’s cousin Basak San Nicolas barangay captain George Rama; Philip Zafra, Rama’s chief of staff; and Eugene Elizalde, Rama’s consultant and representative into the Police Coordinating Advisory Council (PCAC).

Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young said the nonrenewal of casual workers’ employment is politically motivated.  “It seems the nonrenewal is sweeping because hundreds are not being renewed,” he said.

Young said the performance evaluation on casual workers should be done three months before their contracts expired.  The city has over 2,000 casual workers whose contracts expire every six months.

Among those whose services weren’t renewed were Alvin Santillana, chief of the city disaster risk reduction management council.

In Santillana’s absence, Rama said he designated city fire marshal Anderson Comar to lead the council. Rama said the nonrenewal of casual workers is not a new practice at City Hall.

He said former mayor Tomas Osmeña terminated 1,000 casual workers when he became mayor in 2001, replacing former mayor Alvin Garcia.

Citom office head Rafael Yap said he recommended the nonrenewal of contracts of 12 casual employees assigned in his office due to absenteeism, tardiness and  administrative and criminal complaints for discourtesy and fixing.

Young said 170 job-order workers, 50 casual workers from the local school board (LSB) and 20 casual workers from the City Treasurers Office were not renewed. Young said Rama should hasten their performance evaluation because offices where they used to be assigned are “suffering” from lack of manpower. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac and Correspondent Edison delos Angeles