ANTIQUE – Nearly 75 percent of the contract of service (COS) personnel at the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital (ASMGH) have finally received their long-delayed salaries for July 2025, according to the hospital’s latest consolidated report released on Monday, October 6.
As of 10 a.m., 64 out of 86 payrolls had been credited to the employees’ Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) accounts. The remaining 22 payrolls are still under various stages of processing across provincial government offices, including the Accounting, Treasurer’s, and Governor’s/Vice Governor’s Offices.
The payroll processing involves a nine-step workflow — from preparation, validation, and fund obligation to final transmittal to the Commission on Audit (COA). Most of the pending payrolls remain at the accounting stage.
The development follows mounting calls from hospital staff for the release of unpaid wages. Last week, Gov. Paolo Javier assured that the issue would be resolved after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved Supplemental Budget No. 4 on September 16, which covers the salaries of all COS personnel in provincial hospitals and departments for October to December 2025.
The governor reiterated his administration’s commitment to prevent similar delays in the future.
“We remain committed to protecting the welfare of our workers and improving the delivery of public health services to the people of Antique,” he said.
The assurance came after several COS employees of ASMGH, mostly nurses, staged a “no work” protest last week due to nearly four months of unpaid wages. The provincial government has since expedited payroll preparation and validation to catch up with the delays.
Supervising Administrative Officer Jofred Martinez confirmed that contracts for August to October have been approved and that payrolls for August and September are being prioritized.
“We immediately prepared the payrolls for August and September. Gintingub lang ang dya nga mga bulan sa sangka payroll,” Martinez explained.
With the July payroll now partially released and succeeding months already in process, the provincial government hopes to restore normal operations at ASMGH and ease the financial strain among its contractual health workers./PN
