Fiscal seeks P800 hike in travel allowance

Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro has asked the Talisay City Council to pass a resolution increasing the travel allowance of prosecutors attending cases to Talisay City.

In a letter dated March 23, Castro wrote the council asking an P800 increase from the original allowance of P200.

Castro is detailed as prosecutor of the office of Talisay City Prosecution after its reviewing officer, Prosecutor William Canta, filed an indefinite leave of absence to go abroad to join his family there.

Castro said the raise was based on the per diem bracket provided by the Commission on Audit (COA).

“It is quite expensive now to travel from Talisay City to Cebu City to attend hearings of Talisay City cases in the Regional Trial Courts located in Cebu City,” she said.

“We are all aware of the constant oil price hike and passenger fare that the country is undergoing. Indeed, our prosecutors are in dire need of assistance to support their daily commute from Talisay City Prosecution Office to the Regional Trial Courts in Cebu City,” she said.

Castro also cited the Local Government Code Section 458 that the City Council will pass resolutions necessary for an efficient and effective city government in providing for allowances and other benefits to judges, prosecutors, teachers and other national government officials assigned to the city when the finances of the city government allow.

“Despite the equally challenging and hectic duties of a prosecutor that the undersigned is doing in the Office of the Cebu City Prosecution, her mother unit. The undersigned finds it worth doing considering that she was once designated as OIC- City Prosecutor of the Office and she looks forward to contributing more wellness and goodness to the place where she and her family grown to love,” she said.

Apart from that Castro also requests from the City Council to pass a resolution re-validating and recognizing the Department Order detailing her at the Talisay City Prosecution Office. /Carmel Loise Matus, Correspondent