SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga, Philippines — The officers and board of directors of the Provincial Government of Pampanga Employees Union (PGPEU) spoke Tuesday in support of the P40,000 bonus which the Capitol is poised to give to its regular and casual employees.

“It is well within the law, deserved by the employees, and is the provincial leadership’s way of rewarding those who have been actively supporting the programs and projects of the provincial government,” said Lourdes Cecilia Ecalnir, PGPEU president.

This statement came as the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved the supplemental budget submitted by the provincial government for the granting of the Productivity Enhancement Incentive (PEI) to its nearly 2,000 permanent, temporary, casual or contractual employees who are still in the service and have rendered four months of service as of November 30.

Ecalnir clarified that the decision of the provincial government to give this much to employees is well within the provisions of the document released by the DBM on November 28, 2011 which is practically the same as that of Administrative Order No. 3, Series of 2010, the basis of the PEI given last year.

“The only difference is that this year, the P10,000 comes from the national government and the remaining P30,000 is from the provincial government.”

She recalled that last year, of the P10,000 given as PEI to government personnel, P7,000 came from the national government and the remaining P3,000 from the provincial government.

Victor Simon, PGPEU auditor, further said that “nakatipid pa ngayong taon ang probinsya kasi P30,000 lang ang inilabas nito bawat empleyado, kumpara sa P33,000 nuong nakaraang taon (We were able to scrimp on provincial funds this year, releasing only P30,000 per employee compared with P33,000 last year.”

He said that provisions for the granting of the PEI does not have the performance appraisal of employees as basis but has the provincial officials’ stamp of approval of the performance as a whole of the various departments and offices within the provincial capitol.

The members of the PGPEU board agreed that “since the government had the funds, the leadership, through the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) decided to reward the employees for their full support to the programs of the provincial government”.

Simon said they stand by the appropriateness of the PEI since “pinagtrabahuan naman namin ito at tama lang na sa pagtatapos ng taon ay mabigyan ng pagkilala ng gobyerno (we worked to deserve this and be acknowledged at the end of the year).”

“Nakalulungkot na yung iba nating kapwa Kapampangan ay nais pang ipagkait sa amin ito (It’s saddening that some of our province mates would rather deprive us of this [incentive]),” he added.

Simon added that “charity begins at home, at nagtrabaho kami nang husto at may savings po ang kapitolyo; ito ay kinikilala ng gobernadora, ng bise-gobernador at Sangguniang Panlalawigan”.