2023 hiring of job order workers at Bacolod Gov’t Center to be affected by reduced share from nat’l gov’t

‘Delivery of basic services won’t be affected’

The hiring of job order employees of the Bacolod City government will be reduced after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earlier announced that the 2023 national tax allotment (NTA) share of local government units (LGUs) will be lower than this year.

Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said Bacolod’s share from the national government will be reduced from P2 billion to P1.7 billion, a reduction of P300 million in 2023. “We compensate this by reducing the number of job orders,” he said.

Benitez submitted a proposed 2023 budget of P3.250 billion.

“The proposed budget is the same with this year’s annual budget,” he added.

Benitez said they have set aside P625 million for the salaries and wages of JO employees for next year, adding that only 2,700 will be hired by the city.

The mayor made an assurance that the delivery of basic services will not be affected despite the budget cut and reduction in the number of job order workers.

“It won’t affect (the offices) in the sense that they cannot perform their duties and responsibilities (with a lesser number of JOs). It’s more of rationalizing it. We are now trying to analyze and we are reviewing, how many JOs are needed by the city. Based on our review, we looked at the different departments and divisions,.. we don’t need that much,” he added.* (EYA/PNV)