DILG wants Cainta mayor to explain delayed hazard pay of deceased nurse 

File photo of Cainta Mayor Kit Nieto. From his Facebook post

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Friday said it will issue a show-cause order against Cainta, Rizal Mayor Johnielle Nieto to explain the reported delay in giving the hazard pay of a nurse who died of COVID-19 last August this year.

In a statement, DILG spokesman and Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya disclosed that their Legal Service found that all benefits were given to Ma. Theresa Cruz, nurse at Cainta Municipal Hospital, but there was a “considerable delay in the release of benefits to qualified personnel of the local government unit.”

“Our Legal Service found that based on the disbursement vouchers of the LGU, both the Hazard Pay and Special Risk Allowance for the months of March, April, and May 2020 were released to concerned personnel only on 05 August 2020,” Malaya said.

This prompted the Legal Service to recommend a show-cause order against Nieto, who will be required to explain the reported delay in providing Cruz’s hazard pay.

“The Legal Service has therefore recommended to the Secretary of Interior and Local Government the issuance of a Show-Cause Order against the local chief executive of Cainta, Rizal requiring him to explain in writing and under oath why no administrative case should be filed against him for the inexcusable delay in the release of Hazard Pay and Special Risk Allowance to qualified personnel of the LGU, including the deceased nurse Theresa Cruz,” Malaya said.

“We shall issue the said Show-Cause Order against the mayor of Cainta in due course,” he added.

It can be recalled that Joie Cruz, the nurse’s daughter, aired her complaint against Nieto regarding the monetary cuts in her mother’s hazard pay. She said the compensation should be P30,000 but they received P7,000. Joie said it was computed based on a P500 hazard pay a day per government worker.

But Nieto contradicted Joie’s post, saying the Cainta government set a hazard pay of P300 daily to frontliners. He also noted that the local government provided P50,000 cash aid to the Cruz family.

As of this posting, INQUIRER.net is still waiting for the response of the Cainta mayor over the DILG statement on his show-cause order.

JPV