Cortes OKs charter day bonus

Employees of the Mandaue City government will be richer by a few thousand pesos when the city celebrates its 44th year on August 30.

Mayor Jonas C. Cortes signed yesterday City Ordinance 04-2013 granting the charter day bonus for City Hall employees.

Regular employees get P10,000 bonus; P6,000 goes to job order employees, including agents of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team); and P4,000 to volunteers of the Clean and Green and Barangay Health and Nutrition Workers.

For regular employees, job orders and volunteers to be entitled to the full charter day bonus, they must have have rendered in least four months of service to the local government.

Those who have served the city government for less than four months will get smaller bonuses.

Holiday request

Meanwhile, the city government is requesting President Benigno C. Aquino III to declare August 30, 2013 a special non-working holiday just like last year.

Councilor Diosdado P Suico, said the request to Malacañang has been done annually as no law has been passed to make the charter day of the city a special non-working holiday.

“If circumstances do not permit us to celebrate it as a non-working holiday, let’s not force the issue,” Suico said.

Suico said that a lot of sectors, especially the business sector, will be affected if Mandaue’s Charter Day will be turned into a permanent legal holiday.

This year, Mandaue city will hold a monthlong celebration of its 44th year as a city, together with Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) as they celebrate Mandaue Business Month.

With the theme “I am Mandaue: A cradle of love, opportunity and prosperity,” the city government has prepared activities all Mandauehanons will enjoy.

The Mandaue Charter Day celebration will kick off on August 8 with a sports festival at the Mandaue heritage plaza in the morning and the Pajara Bridge Park launching in the afternoon.

Also spread throughout the month of August are other activities like food fairs, cultural shows, and academic competitions hosted by the Department of Education.