Tomas ‘angry’, ‘embarrassed’ over delayed City Hall workers pay

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IN AN EFFORT to address delayed wages, Cebu City Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña is inviting unpaid job-order (JO) and project-based employees to submit their salary grievances directly to the Office of the Vice Mayor.

While some councilors warned the move could encroach on executive functions, Mayor Nestor Archival attributed the payroll delays to existing city council procedures.

The issue surfaced during the council's regular session on June 16, when Osmeña sponsored a resolution calling on JO and project-based personnel from both the executive and legislative departments who have not received their salaries, wages, or other compensation to submit their documents and claims to his office.

Osmeña framed the measure as a response to mounting complaints from workers who have gone months without pay.

"Many people cannot get paid their salaries," Osmeña told the council.

"I'm so embarrassed as an official of the city government when we have employees who cannot even put food on their plate because we cannot process our salaries on time."

The vice mayor said delayed compensation was affecting not only workers' welfare but also government operations.

"This is the worst thing that we can do to our own people, and it will affect the performance of our city government," he said.

Osmeña said he wanted to personally monitor unpaid claims and encouraged affected workers to approach his office for assistance.

While councilors generally supported efforts to help unpaid workers, Councilor Harry Eran raised concerns about the boundaries between the legislative and executive branches.

Eran noted that payroll preparation and processing are functions lodged with the executive department and cautioned that the vice mayor's initiative should not appear to bypass those responsibilities.

"While we laud the intention of the Office of the Vice Mayor to help process or look into the delays of the payroll, it is also prudent that the executive will be given a chance to work their job because this belongs to the executive department's work," Eran said.

He urged the vice mayor's office to coordinate closely with the executive branch to determine the root causes of the delays.

"Para mura ba og wa sa usurpation ba," Eran said in Cebuano.

He explained that the effort should not create the impression that the vice mayor's office is taking over the executive's role in payroll processing.

The resolution was eventually approved without objection.

Responding to Eran’s concerns, Osmeña maintained that he was intervening because workers had been left without income for extended periods.

He disclosed that some job order personnel assigned to his office had continued working despite not receiving compensation and claimed he had personally provided financial assistance to some of them.

The vice mayor also directly blamed the city administration for the situation.

"I put the blame really on the city administrator because that is primarily the responsibility," Osmeña said.

He stressed that the problem extended beyond his office and was affecting personnel across City Hall.

"I'm angry. Why is this happening?" he added.

Asked about the resolution and the invitation for workers to bring their concerns to the vice mayor's office, Mayor Nestor Archival said he had no objection to employees seeking assistance from Osmeña.

"I don't have problems with that," the mayor said.

However, Archival rejected suggestions that the executive branch was solely responsible for the delays, arguing that the process is complicated by existing council requirements involving job order appointments.

According to the mayor, departments first prepare and submit the necessary reports and documentation for JO personnel. Afterward, the appointments must undergo council review and approval before payroll processing can proceed.

Archival said delays occur when requests are referred to committees and await committee reports and council action.

"The problem is there are the ones who approved that," he said, referring to the procedures adopted by the council.

The mayor also described accusations against the executive branch as unfair, saying the same officials criticizing the delays helped create the approval process now being blamed for the bottlenecks.

The latest exchange is the newest chapter in an ongoing controversy involving delayed payments to hundreds of Cebu City Hall's job order workers.

Earlier this month, Archival defended City Hall against accusations that nearly 1,000 JO workers had gone months without receiving compensation, insisting that funds were available and that documentary deficiencies were a major cause of the delays.

Council records cited during previous discussions showed that at least 956 job order workers remained unpaid for services rendered from January to March 2026, with some back pay reportedly dating back to October 2025.

The issue prompted the City Council to pass resolutions calling for the expedited processing and release of unpaid salaries and honoraria.

Councilor Harold Kendrick Go previously warned that the delays were affecting hundreds of households.

"956 ka pamilya ang apektado," Go said earlier.

The councilor noted that nearly a thousand families had been impacted by the prolonged non-payment.(TGP)