MISAMIS ORIENTAL — The Provincial Board has pushed back against claims that the termination of around 1,800 job order and casual employees at the Provincial Capitol is due to budget constraints, calling the narrative false and misleading.

According to board members, the 2026 provincial budget is sufficient to cover personnel expenses.

The Office of the Governor proposed a P4.5-billion budget, while the Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved P3.371 billion, in line with the governor’s own request during the State of the Province Address (SoPA).

“This amount was legally approved and already includes Personnel Services (PS), which covers the salaries of regular, casual, and job order workers,” a board member, who asked not to be named, said.

The board clarified that the salaries of job order and casual employees do not come from individual office budgets, such as the Provincial Health Office (PHO). Instead, these salaries are charged against the Personnel Services allocation, which is already part of the approved budget.

“Blaming the PHO or other office budgets for the terminations is misleading,” the board member said.

He stressed that ending the contracts of job order and casual workers is a policy decision, not an automatic result of a reduced budget. “There is no law or budget rule that says job order and casual employees must be removed simply because a local government unit’s budget is lower,” he added.

The board member also pointed out that many Capitol employees have not been paid for nearly six months, with salary delays dating back to the third quarter of 2025.