Cabanlas clarifies legal basis for City College president salary grade

“The salary grade should not be fixed by us, it should be fixed by law and we should have some legal basis on that, we should be clarified on that.”

This was manifested by Councilor Edgar S. Cabanlas, chair of the City Council committee on laws and rules, during the regular session presided over by Vice Mayor Bebot Rodriguez, following the query of Councilor Romeo V. Calizo on the legal basis of pegging the salary grade in appointing Dr. Jestoni Babia as president of the Cagayan de Oro City College.

Section 4 of Ordinance No. 14629-2023, an ordinance amending pertinent provisions of Ordinance No. 14564-2023 otherwise known as the charter of the City College of Cagayan de Oro, provides that the salary of the president of the college shall be equivalent to City College President III (Salary Grade 29) position classification, subject to the existing compensation and position classification system and shall be comparable to that being received by other presidents of similar educational institutions of similar standing.

Councilor Cabanlas said he was just intrigued by the disparity of salaries between City Hall department heads at Salary Grade 26 and the president of the city college.

“In the labor code, when there’s disparity of salaries, it’s not good. It will not motivate other department heads. I mean, the maximum should be the salary of a department head; that should be the level of compensation,” Councilor Cabanlas pointed out.

For her part, Councilor Suzette Magtajas-Daba explained that it is provided under the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Index of Occupational Services position titles and salary grades in the local government.

Dr. Babia further explained that it is one of the requirements for the institutional recognition from Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), so that national government will fund the City College including tuition fees of the students.

Vice Mayor Rodriguez upon unanimous motion of the Councilors ruled to defer the matter for one week to discuss with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and other city offices to clarify the matter (JBDacer/SP)