REPORT ON LBPEA NEB MEETING FOR FEBRUARY 2012

REPORT ON LBPEA NEB MEETING FOR FEBRUARY 2012
by SONIA D. BROTARLO - National Executive Board Member

The meetings were held on February 23-24, 2012 at the LBPEA Office, LandBank Plaza.

FEBRUARY 23

A meeting with Atty. Mon Cervantes-HRMG Head, Atty. Toti Vallada-PAD Head, and AVP Volts Pablo was held in the morning.

Atty. Mon Cervantes formally introduced to the National Executive Board the newly assigned Head of the Personnel Administration Department - Atty. Joselito Vallada.

Executive Order 13
Our meeting focused primarily on Executive Order 13 as this involved disqualification of an employee from receiving MIP2 and MIP3 in case of admonition.

The issue on this specific EO cropped up immediately after the release of MIP3 wherein employees who received admonition from the management last year were disqualified to receive such benefit.

Atty. Mon gave each member of the board copy of the Exceprt on MIP Rules. According to him, this EO can only be read in the PAD or ERD as this was not allowed to be circularized due to the confidentiality of the content of this EO.

He discussed on the flow of administrative disciplinary cases up to the resolution by the Accountability and Assessment Committee (AAC).

Re-Organization:
Atty. Mon Cervantes informed us that the reorganization will be on April 1, 2012 however the preparation for the big change is still ongoing with the Change Committee headed by SVP Jojie Cabreza.

FEBRUARY 24

1. Retail Treasury Bonds:
Representatives from the Investment Banking discussed the Retail Treasury Bonds Tranche 15. Public Offer period is from February 21-29, 2012. Minimum denomination of P5T.

2. LBPEA Annual National Convention
Discussion was made on the schedule, place, and activities during the convention.

The convention is scheduled on April 18-21, 2012. This is the annual gathering of LBPEA Officers bankwide particularly the Regional Governors and Vice-Governors.


3. HMO Concerns
Refund of P5T was already made to those who were deducted from their MIP 3 but without excess in HMO.

HMO IDs were already dispatched through courier to the different units.


4. ACAPERA
The NEB signed a clarificatory letter addressed Sec. Florencio B. Abad of DBM. The letter contained as follows:

May we seek ruling regarding the entitlement of employees of Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) on increase of the Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA) pursuant to Joint Resolution No. 4 denominated as:

xxx

Subsequently, DBM Budget Circular No. 2009-3 was issued August 18, 2009 prescribing the rules on the grant of PERA. It states under item 1.3:

xxx

Prior to the implementation of the cited Circular, government employees including those with LBP were receiving a PERA in the amount of P500.00 and Additional Compensation (ACA) of P500.00 or a combined P1,000.00 ACA-PERA per month. Consequently, with the implementation of the Circular, the employees of other GOCCs and GFIs with original charter, e.g., BSP, GSIS, SS, HDMF are enjoying the increase, while LBP employees merely receive a combined ACA-PERA of P1,000.00. The disparity in the amount of ACA-PERA prompted us to appeal to LBP Management for the implemenation of the minimum combined increase of P1,000.00.

Despite our several appeals to the LBP Management, our requests remained unacted due to the vaguenss of the interpretation of the provision of the Circular.

But since JR4 is clear in stating that the increase is basically granted as a supplement pay due to rising cost of living, and since we are also affected by this condition by reason of the eroded purchasing power and effects of inflation, it is but just and fair that the Circular be applied to us.

The Saving Clause of DBM Budget Circular No. 2009-3 states that "Cases not covered by the provision of this Circular shall be submitted to the DBM for resolution", hence, this request.

We will be glad receiving your favorable opinion/resolution the soonest.

Thank you very much for the preferential attention.

Very truly yours,

LBPEA