DUMAGUETE CITY (PNA) – The executive and legislative branches of the municipal government of Valencia are finally seeing eye-to-eye with an initial agreement to look for a legitimate way to reinstate hundreds of casual and job order workers whose services were terminated last Jan. 12.

Mayor Rodolfo Gonzalez Jr., Vice-Mayor Diodoro Olasiman and opposition councilors were caught up earlier in a controversy over the dismissal of these workers when the local government failed to pass the municipal budget. Gonzalez is in one camp opposed to Olasiman and the opposition councilors. They have been passing the buck over who should be held responsible for the termination of the workers.

On Monday, department heads were expected to submit their respective lists of “essential” workers and make a justification for their reinstatement, Vice Mayor Diodoro Olasiman said over the weekend.

This developed following a finance committee meeting last Friday, attended by Mayor Rodolfo Gonzalez Jr., Vice Mayor Olasiman, and Councilor Romeo Alviola, committee chair.

Olasiman, however, said that not all of the 460 non-regular workers whose contracts were not renewed last week would be re-hired, considering the financial state the town was facing at the moment.

Due to still unresolved concerns over the proposed 2010 budget, Valencia was operating on a re-enacted budget from 2009.

Mayor Gonzalez, who, according to Olasiman and the town council, has the sole authority to hire and fire workers, had earlier pointed to the non-passage of the new budget by the Town Council as the main reason for the termination of the casual and job order workers.

But Vice Mayor Olasiman, residing Officer of the Town Council, and some of the council members, had repeatedly denied that they had a hand in the dismissal of these workers.

Finally, the council passed in its regular session last Thursday a resolution authorizing the Mayor to rehire the laid off employees with their salaries charged from the 2009 re-enacted budget, Olasiman said.