Katrina Domingo, ABS-CBN News
Pasig has regularized some 3,300 city hall workers in about 2 and a half years as the local government pushes to insulate its bureaucracy from politicking, Mayor Vico Sotto said.
Before July 2019, Pasig only had 955 regular workers out of some 10,000 people employed in the city hall, Sotto said in a recent interview with ABS-CBN News.
"When I assumed office, halos walang regular dito (there weren't a lot of regular workers here)," he said.
"Approximately 9 percent of the employees were regular. That's a very small number considering that the previous leadership had roughly 27 years to do this," he said, referring to the Eusebio dynasty, which has ruled Metro Manila's 4th richest city for nearly 3 decades.
There was a need to fix the labor status of city hall workers from "contractual", "job order" or "casual" positions to more regular posts to "remove the culture of systematic fear" among them, Sotto said.
"Noong naupo ako, maraming nag-advice sa akin - without mentioning names - na, 'Vico, kapag naging mayor ka, huwag ka mag-permanent.'"
(When I took office, a lot of people - without mentioning names - advised me , "Vico, if you become mayor, don't give permanent positions to workers.")
"Ang katwiran nila, kapag permanent na yan, hindi na takot yan mawalan ng trabaho, hindi na yan susunod sa iyo."
(Their reasoning is that if we make permanent positions for workers, they will no longer have the fear of losing their jobs, so they will no longer follow the mayor.)
"That's the thinking of many traditional politicians."
Several workers have been employed on a contractual basis for 20 years already, while one man held that labor status for nearly half a century, the mayor said.
"Forty-three years in service, he was [employed as a] casual [worker]," Sotto said.
"We're talking about dignity of labor, security of tenure," he said.
"We should insulate our bureaucracy from politics if we want a government that is truly merit-based, that is based on the competence and qualifications of our bureaucracy," he said.
Labor contractualization - or the practice of hiring long-term workers under a renewable 6-month contract - has been a long-standing problem in the Philippines as several Filipinos have been denied of benefits usually given to employees who hold a permanent status in a company or government office.
In 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte certified as urgent the Security of Tenure Bill, in a bid to give more job security to Filipino workers by prohibiting the practice of contractualization.
But Congress has yet to pass the measure 3 years since the President urged the legislative branch to end the said labor practice.
Duterte also made no mention of his supposed anti-contractualization push in his last State of the Nation Address in 2021.
Despite Sotto's program to address the problem of contractualization in Pasig, Vice Mayor Iyo Bernardo has questioned the mayor's hiring policy, saying key positions in the city hall have been awarded to non-Pasig residents.
"Nakakalungkot na ang Pasig, naging isang pelikula na lamang. Puro palabas," Bernardo said in a video uploaded on his Facebook page last month.
(It is sad that Pasig has been turned into a movie, all for show.)
"Nakakalungkot isipin na sinakop na tayo. Wala ka bang bilib sa kakayahan ng mga Pasigueño?" he said, without naming city hall officials.
(It's sad to think that we have been invaded. Are you not confident with the abilities of Pasigueños?)
"Ano ang mayroon sa mga nakaupo ngayon na taga-Quezon City at San Juan na wala sa mga pinamumunuan mo?" he said.
(What do Pasig city hall officials who are residents of Quezon City and San Juan have that your constituents do not have?)
In an earlier interview, Sotto said Bernardo should raise his issues "through formal mechanisms, not social media."
Sotto and Bernardo are both vying for Pasig's mayoralty post in the upcoming 2022 elections.
Sotto is seeking to be re-elected with a promise to continue his program of regularizing the employment status of more city hall workers.
"We're not going to stop there. May election ban. We will have to pause for a while," Sotto said.
"[But] It's beyond the regularization here or giving permanent status to the employees. It's about introducing a new brand not just of politics but of governance."
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/02/18/22/pasig-regularizes-3300-workers-under-vicos-first-term
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