BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan urged all city officials and employees to fulfil their responsibility of attending the regular Monday flag-raising ceremony to avoid being imposed the appropriate penalties for violations of their sworn duties and responsibilities.
The local chief executive directed the city human resource management office to regularly check the attendance of city officials and employees to the regular Monday event because it is one of their obligations enshrined under existing civil service rules and regulations.
“We need not to remind you of your obligation to attend the regular Monday flag-raising ceremony. We also need not to impose the necessary penalties against those who refuse to attend the flag-raising ceremony because it is incumbent upon city officials and employees to attend the said ceremony,” Domogan stressed.
The city mayor said city officials and employees should join their colleagues in their respective designated positions during the flag raising ceremony so that they will not be scattered within the premises of the city hall grounds or stay in their respective offices while the flag is being raised.
He criticized some city officials and employees for their repeated failure to attend the regular Monday ceremony as they opted to stay in their offices or attend to some of their official and personal transactions while most of their colleagues are spending some of their time to attend the regular flag raising ceremony scheduled on the city hall grounds.
According to him, public servants must have the sense of sacrifice by spending a few minutes of their precious time to renew their allegiance to the flag and for other special announcements that will be made before the start of regular work in the city government.
He claimed that the city human resource management office, in coordination with the administrative officers of the different city departments, should impose a uniform penalty against city officials and employees who continue to defy orders to attend the regular Monday flag raising ceremony and that such penalty must be continuously imposed until such time that the concerned officials and employees will comply with one of their mandatory obligations.
The city mayor reminded city officials and employees not to take his order against him because it is but proper to be fair with those who are regularly attending the Monday flag raising ceremony pursuant to existing civil service laws, rules and regulations.
Under prevailing rules and regulations of the civil service, officials and employees who fail to attend the regular Monday flag raising ceremony will be deducted fifteen minutes from their earned leaves or that he or she will be considered tardy on the said date.
Regular flag raising ceremonies are being undertaken in the different government offices and local governments in the different parts of the country pursuant to existing orders from concerned government agencies as part of the obligation of public servants to the bureaucracy.
By Dexter A. See
