Manila City Mayor Lim's team breaks their silence

The camp of Manila Mayor Alfredo S. Lim finally decided to break its silence over what they termed as `early politicking' by some eager-beaver traditional politicians out to gain exposure at the mayor's expense.

In an interview, Lim's chief of staff and media bureau director Ric de Guzman branded the recently-issued and `overly rehashed press releases' of Vice Mayor Isko Moreno as `baseless' and `pure lies' intended to mislead the public by making it appear that he is championing the cause of the employees when actually, he should be the one who should answer to a lot of questions.

According to De Guzman, Moreno's alleged `disagreement' with Lim's decision to lay-off City Hall employees to drastically cut its spending was anchored on the fact that he himself was personally affected, since the number of the consultants and researchers in the legislative department, headed by Moreno himself, also had to be trimmed down.

"Ang hirap niyan, kahit minsan di niya binanggit na apektado siya mismo at `yun ang kanyang ipinagsisintir. Hindi lang naman sila ang apektado dahil mismong ang office of the mayor nagbawas din. Mas marami pa nga ang ibinawas ng mayor dahil kailangang sundin ang memo ng Commission on Audit.

City treasurer Marissa de Guzman, during a meeting with the 22 barangay chairmen who are members of the Malacanang barangay league led by Lino Lim and Bal Ballanes and who called on Lim yesterday, said that based on COA observation memo issued by city auditor Elinore Lavilla on February 29, 2012, the city government's attention was called to an overpayment of Php 1.1 billion in salaries for the year 2011 and not for `overspending' as alleged by Moreno.

Owing to this, treasurer De Guzman said she recommended that the cost-cutting measures be taken by the city by freezing hiring, reducing the number of casual employees as well as researchers both in the executive and legislative body `in order to increase availability of cash to pay the mandatory increase of salaries and wages of city government employees under the Salary Standardization Law, whose implementation took effect in January 2012.' The recommendations took effect April 1, 2012.

In the case of policemen, the city was prevented by COA in its audit observation memo last November 21, 2011, from paying the allowances of the said personnel along with other cities, stating that the said personnel are already being compensated by the national government, they being national government employees.

"Such allowances are not even mandatory and are only subject to availability of funds," she stressed.

In the case of the salaries for researchers and consultants, treasurer De Guzman said the usual practice was for the office of the vice mayor to get the P3.8 million cash advance, prepare the payroll themselves and then give back the said payroll to the city treasurer's office.

She said that such is not the case with the executive department, where the employees concerned are made to personally appear to the city treasurer, draw their respective salaries and then sign after receiving their envelopes.

According to treasurer De Guzman, when the same procedure was applied in the case of the legislative department for the consultants and researchers to personally receive their salaries for March 1 to 15, nobody appeared to claim said salaries, prompting her to return the money to the cash division for safekeeping.

On Moreno's pronouncements that the building of roads should have been reduced to accommodate the salaries of the laid off consultants and researchers, the barangay leaders themselves expressed disagreement, saying more people are bound to benefit from good roads,even as they hailed the mayor for the recent road improvements done in their areas of jurisdiction.

"Eh ano ba ang mas importante? Kapakanan ng mas nakararaming residente o kapakanan ng mga `political proteges' na naapektuhan ng tanggalan?" said chief of staff De Guzman.

He also said that they were merely prompted to speak out on the issue since the `lies' have been repeatedly stated.

De Guzman said the mayor would rather preoccupy himself with implementing the meaningful projects he had lined up for Manila residents like building more schools and health centers instead of immersing himself in useless politicking this early. - City of Manila — ARA