COUNCILOR Mylen Yaranon has put forward a resolution pushing for increased pay for the city’s barangay officials, barangay nutrition scholars (BNS), barangay health workers (BHWs), tanods, day care workers, and other barangay employees.
Approved by the Baguio City Council and signed by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, the resolution addressed to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM),the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLFG) requests for an increase in barangay worker honoraria based on both the national tax allotment (NTA) and local revenue generation in compliance with DBM guidelines.
Yaranon said that in comparison to local government officials and employees that are covered by the salary standardization law, barangay workers only receive an honoraria, which does not properly reflect the service they render, which includes long hours beyond the eight-hour workday, and on-call services as needed.
According to her, barangay workers are often frontliners in various local and national projects, and form the bulk of the Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) in addition to their other functions.
Yaranon also said that the agencies in question should aid in determining the appropriate honoraria to be given to the barangay workers in accordance with existing rules, taking the NTA into account, as well as the expected increase in city budgets next year due to the Mandanas Ruling, which allows the inclusion of all national income in the computation of the share of local government units (LGUs) from the actual collections of national taxes.
