Capitol workers in coop assured of P5K net pay

A computerized payroll system that will automatically assure a P5,000 take home pay to provincial government employees was proposed in yesterday’s Cebu Provincial Board (PB) session.

The proposal came after the PB and the CFI Community Cooperative Inc. agreed to review their 1987 agreement that spelled out the provincial government’s special payroll arrangement with the coop closely identified with the Garcias.

PB Member Peter John Calderon noted that a certain provision in the agreement on the conduct of the payroll preparation is not observed by both parties.

Under the agreement, two separate payrolls must be prepared separately for Capitol employees who have incurred loans in the coop and for the CFI members.

At present, only one payroll is prepared by the Capitol’s Accounting Office which goes straight to the coop for processing, said Ramon Dumayac Jr., a member of the CFI’s board of directors.

Dumayac and the coop’s board of directors led by lawyer Lito Astillero faced queries from the PB on the agreement’s conditions, the coop’s operations and the full-page advertisement they published in local dailies last week.

During the two-hour discussion, Astillero said the coop is open to revisiting the provisions of the MOA. “We are open into talks with the MOA. After all, it is a bilateral contract” he said.

Under the 1987 MOA, signed during the term of governor Osmundo Rama, the credit coop is assured of prompt payment of all employee loans after it authorized the coop to pay the salary due to every employee subject to reimbursement by the province.

This meant that member-borrower employees will now collect their salaries from the cooperative and no longer with the paymaster of the Capitol.”

No conflict

CFI founder and retired Judge Esperanza Fiel-Garcia was unable to attend the session due to the death of former Cebu 2nd district Rep. Pablo Garcia’s sister in Negros Oriental.

Capitol employees who are coop members attended the session. PB member Grecilda “Gigi” Sanchez said the province should follow the mandate stated under the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

The act specifies that every employee must have a net take home pay of P5,000 per month from the employer.

The Capitol is also set to implement a computerized payroll system that will automatically deposit P5,000 to the ATM of employees.

However, Dumayac said the provincial government is also required by law to remit the salary of its member employees to CFI.

Under Article 58 of the Cooperative Law, a member of a coop may authorize the employer to deduct money from the salary as payment of his or her dues to the cooperative.

Provincial Legal Officer Orvi Ortega said he does not see a conflict between the two existing laws.

“There is really no contradiction between the two because after the deductions, there could still be a little amount left from the salary,” he said.

“Deduct the dues from the loan until its fully paid while maintaining the P5,000 minimum take home pay,” he added.

Not specific

Jonathan Capanas, dean of the University of San Jose-Recoletos, said there was no need for the agreement since the authority to deduct dues from the salary is already provided for in the Cooperative Law.

Calderon also questioned the coop’s board of directors on the coop’s paid full page advertisement which appealed to Cebu provincial officials for sobriety and fairness in dealing with the province’s ties with the coop.

The ad cited a “prominent Cebuano politician” as being behind a “vicious smear campaign” against the coop.

It also mentioned an unnamed “high-ranking Cebu Provincial Officer — definitely not the governor – has taken over the demolition job.”

Astillero said the coop initially preferred to maintain its silence on the issues hurled against them during the May elections when they were accused of running a financial schemes similar to the multi-billion dollar Ponzi pyramiding scam.

The “various clamors of their members on the status of the MOA and the coop” triggered CFI to run the ad last week, he said.

“It was not pointing to anybody else in specific. We were not referring to a particular person, he said.

Calderon said the coop should not have included the statements pertaining to the politicians if they only wanted to explain its stance on the status of their ties with the provincial government.

“One could always show disapproval in a language that does not insult or indignify the opposite side. It has published ungentlemanly words hurdled against the members of the PB coming from CFI directors,” Sanchez said. /Peter L. Romanillos, Correspondent