TACLOBAN CITY – Mayor Alfredo “Bejo” Romualdez gave hope to the more than 1, 000 employees of the city government who are looking forward to receiving an additional bonus this Christmas.

The city mayor said that he already directed his finance managers as to give him an estimate as to how much the city government would need for the granting of additional bonus to the employees.

“There is a big possibility that we can grant additional bonus to our employees. In fact, I already asked our finance managers to seriously study this. What I need is the figure,” Romualdez told Leyte Samar Daily Express, referring to the amount the city would need for this purpose.

Earlier, City Administrator “Jimjim” Yaokasin Jr. said that the city government would need at least P20 million if the additional bonus would be pegged at P20, 000 per employee.

Last year, the city government gave P20, 000 to all its employees, except for the so called job order workers where given only P5, 000 as their additional bonus. The city government had already released the 13 th month pay and the P5, 000 cash gift of the employees.

Mayor Romualdez told Express that he would like to see all the city employees “happy” this Christmas, reason why he directed the finance managers to look into this matter.

“I know that this additional bonus would be a big help to them this charismas. They should not worry, we seriously considering the granting of additional bonus. It is just a matter of how much they would receive,” he said.

The chief executive said that the city government has “enough fund” where it cold source the additional bonus being clamored by the city employees.

Meantime, at the provincial, government, the possible granting of additional bonus to the more than 2, 000 employees is yet to be assured by Gov. Jericho “Icot” Petilla.

Gina Hipe, provincial budget officer, had told Express that while the governor had express his willingness to give any additional bonus to the employees, but funding seems to be the problem.

According to her, with the austerity measures being implemented by Gov. Petilla as mandated by the national government, any release of funds must be seriously studied.

Last year, the provincial government under then Gov. Remedios “Matin” Petilla released P22 million in order to gi0ve all the employees P10, 000 each for their additional bonus.