Tagbilaran City accumulated savings amounting to P29 million from 189 unfilled positions. This was revealed by Tagbilaran Mayor Dan Lim during the Christmas party held at the City Hall Thursday evening. The mayor made the revelation when he explained how the city government was able to give its productivity enhancement incentives to City Hall workers. “We would not be able to give this if we filled up the vacant positions this year,” Lim explained. The mayor pointed out that even though so many positions were not filled up, the bureaucracy continued to function efficiently. “This is the reason why we are giving you this huge incentives,” the mayor told employees.

Lim announced during the Christmas party that the city government allocated P25 million for the productivity enhancement incentives and salary differentials of its workers retroactive to January this year. The mayor also made it clear that the city intends to pay the increase mandated by the government to its workers next year. “To be able to do this, we have to be efficient in our revenue generation activities,” he added. At the same time, the mayor said that all regular employees included officials will receive P20,000 in productivity enhancement incentives. The mayor also disclosed that casual employees will receive P5,000 each to help tide them over this Christmas. During the Christmas party, Lim himself presided over the program particularly in distributing the prizes to raffle winners. Prizes at stake during the raffle include a washing machine, refrigerator, television, stand fans, rice cookers, digital cameras and sacks of rice. By Sen Guingguing