CONTROVERSIAL | BUKIDNON NEWS | MALAYBALAY CITY NEWS | POLITICS | GOVERNMENT – There’s something brewing over at the City Government of Malaybalay…or so the several sources of BukidnonOnline.com say. Allegedly, former Malaybalay City Vice Mayor and now City Mayor Ignacio “Inaki” Zubiri is mass firing job order City Hall employees. According to sources, the new Malaybalay mayor’s decision to let go of job order employees has created “tension, worry and sadness” over at the City Hall.

The City Health Office, as of today, has lost 25 employees. More employees in other city government offices lost their jobs as well. Even job order employees over at Patrol 117 / Emergency Unit were not spared. More layoffs will be done in the next few weeks.

I have yet to ask Mayor Zubiri about this. Was his decision to mass fire job order employees prompted by alleged poor fiscal management over at the city hall? Or was it just his way of “marking the territory” i.e. letting everyone know that he’s now the one in-charge and that he’s now the new boss?

Let’s hope the new Malaybalay mayor responds.

First off, let me just emphasize that Mayor Zubiri has every prerogative to do this. After all, he won the election. That means that the people already gave him the mandate to do what he thinks would be best for the city and for its people.

On one hand, though, if Zubiri’s reason behind these massive layoffs is solid and justified (e.g. the “kaban ng bayan” is cash-strapped and therefore there’s need “na maghigpit ng sinturon”) then his move is understandable. After all, how many complaints have we heard that there are job order employees who got hired merely because they’re “lakas” or “duol sa luwag”? How many people have complained about job order employees who allegedly merely watch TV during work hours, who hardly reports for work on time or don’t really exert extra effort at work because there’s redundancy in tasks/duties? And exactly how many people have expressed their dismay over the huge sum of money given out as “bonus” to these J.O.s?

If Mayor Zubiri thinks that letting go of job order employees would encourage productivity, competitiveness and more results from casual and regular employees, then so be it. More results but lesser expenditures sounds good to me.

However, if the move to mass fire people is for some “political” reason (and we all know what this is) or some sort of strategy to give way to Mayor Zubiri’s “trusted friends” or chosen ones to come and work at the city hall, then that’s something Malaybalay residents must be wary of. To fire someone and let someone else take his/her place yet the latter remains unproductive or isn’t even qualified for the job does not sound good at all.

We all need a city hall that has hardworking, qualified, respectful, tactful, resourceful and results-driven employees.

It is but a must.

If letting go of a lot of Malaybalay City job order employees would mean a better, pumped up, strapped up city hall then perhaps it’s a change that we all should accept. However, that doesn’t mean that it stops citizens like us from being wary observers or for the city government to slow down on their drive to produce more job opportunities for everyone.

It is but their duty.

In the meantime, what we all do know is that a lot of people no longer have jobs and now need to fend for themselves.

THOUGHTS?

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