861 SBMA COS, JO employees get 5-day wellness leave per CSC-COA-DBM Joint Circular No. 1

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Board of Directors has approved the Grant of Ancillary Benefits to Contract of Service (COS) and Job Order (JO) employees, including five days of Wellness Leave. 

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Eduardo Jose L. Aliño explained that the Civil Service Commission (CSC) has approved a five-day paid Wellness Leave for government employees, starting January 1, 2026. 

This supports the primary goal of the government to provide a better quality of life for Filipinos thru mental and physical health and well-being initiatives, by allowing up to three consecutive days off, separate from existing vacation/sick leaves. This applies to public sector officials and employees. 

Aliño added that the Board approved the Grant of Ancillary Benefits through Board Resolution No. 26-01-1655 on January 27 which was then issued on January 28, 2026, following Joint Circular No. 1, Series of 2025 by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Commission on Audit (COA), and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Under CSC-COA-DBM Joint Circular No. 1, s. 2025, government COS and JO workers are entitled to ancillary benefits such as overtime pay (based on CSC-DBM JC No. 2, s. 2015), reimbursement for official local travel, and a potential 20% premium on daily pay, subject to fund availability and contract stipulations. 

Additionally, the said SBMA Board Resolution authorizes the agency to provide ancillary benefits to COS and JO employees, such as Compensatory Time Off (CTO), Flexible Working Arrangement (FWA), Reimbursement of Authorized Official Travel Expense, and Wellness Leave.

Aliño further said that the grant of these benefits is intended to empower COS and JO workers to more effectively fulfill their contractual obligations, particularly where service exigencies require extended work hours, mobility beyond official stations, and the continuity of SBMA operations.

They may also receive a year-end gratuity pay of up to ₱7,000 for 2024, depending on the length of service.

These benefits are generally applicable to national government agencies, state universities and colleges (SUCs), and government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs), subject to budget availability.

The adoption of FWAs has been institutionalized across both public and private sectors to enhance productivity, promote work-life balance, and ensure business continuity during disruptive situations.

The SBMA employs 631 COS and 230 JO employees as of December 31, 2025. (MPD-SBMA)

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SBMA to outsource Contract of Service personnel

In compliance with national government directive, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) will outsource the services rendered by a significant chunk of its Contract of Service (COS) personnel starting February 2019.

According to lawyer Ramon Agregado, SBMA Senior Deputy Administrator for Support Services, a total of 307 personnel maintained by the agency under COS scheme will be absorbed by outsourcing companies that will provide janitorial, ground maintenance, building security and housing security services to the SBMA.

Agregado announced this on Friday (Dec. 28) during a general assembly at the SBMA Gym wherein agency officials discussed outsourcing and position reclassification procedures with concerned personnel. This was after the affected personnel were first notified in writing in April 2018.

The affected workers, he said, are security, janitorial, and ground maintenance personnel whose positions have been recommended for outsourcing by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) as early as September 2013.

“This is a requirement of the government—of the DBM. We are simply complying with the requirement,” Agregado explained.

“Please bear in mind that we are doing our best in order for you to keep your jobs,” he assured workers.

At the same time, Agregado said the SBMA would retain a total of 655 COS workers until June 2019, but possibly until December 31, 2020, the new deadline set under a joint circular from DBM, Civil Service Commission (CSC) and Commission on Audit (COA).

He said the SBMA hopes to hire the remaining qualified personnel for plantilla positions once the agency’s proposed restructuring plan gets approved by the DBM.

In the meantime, the SBMA has begun reclassifying COS positions and salary grades so that these workers may eventually fit into the new organizational structure, assuming they obtain the requisite eligibility, Agregado added.

The outsourcing and position reclassification procedures, SBMA officials said, actually serve as safety nets to avert financial ruin for workers affected by the order to end contractualization in government service.

SBMA Deputy Administrator for Administration Ruel John Kabigting noted that the SBMA had previously been called out at the House of Representatives for employing some of the most number of COS workers among government agencies.

He added that other free ports like Clark and Bataan had since outsourced their personnel accordingly.

Kabigting recalled that under Joint Circular No. 1 issued on June 15, 2017 by the CSC, COA and DBM, government agencies were allowed to renew contracts of service or job orders only until Dec. 31, 2018.

He said that while another joint circular dated Nov. 9, 2018 extended the deadline for compliance to Dec. 31, 2020, the DBM had directed the SBMA in a September 2013 memorandum to refrain from hiring personnel under contract of service and instead fill up its regular plantilla positions “to have semblance of continuity in service.”

He added that in 2015, the Office of the President likewise required the SBMA to reduce its manpower complement from contract of service to 3% per annum.

Finally in October 2016, the DBM directed the SBMA that “as a matter of policy, the janitorial and security services shall be outsourced, subject to existing budgeting, accounting, auditing and other applicable laws, rules and regulations,” Kabigting said.

From there, the outsourcing scheme was approved by the SBMA Board of Directors on April 12, 2018 and underwent the processes of notification, bidding and endorsement until the contract was awarded to winning service providers early this month.

According to the SBMA Human Resources Management Department (HRMD), the outsourcing scheme will provide job security in the private sector to the affected workers, as well as holiday pay, 13th month pay, overtime pay, and benefits from Social Security System, Pag-Ibig and Philhealth that they don’t otherwise enjoy as COS workers of the government. (HEE,MPD-SBMA)

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PCGA Gift-Giving Benefits 1,155 SBMA Contractual Workers

SOME 1,155 contract of service (CS) workers of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) were this year’s beneficiary of the annual gift-giving of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) 111th Auxiliary Squadron.

SBMA’s CS workers do not receive bonuses, allowances and other benefits, which is why we want to cheer them up a little bit in the spirit of the holiday season,” said PCGA Captain Randy Escolango, Director of the 111th Auxiliary Squadron and OIC SBMA Administrator.

PCGA officers and members attended to the CS employees who trooped to the Subic Gym on Thursday (December 15)  between 4PM to 8PM.

“We started the PCGA 111th Auxiliary Squadron gift-giving last year and we decided to make it an annual event,” Escolango said. “This year, we have more than doubled the number of beneficiaries and with God’s grace, we hope to keep on doing this in the many more years to come, he added. (subicbaynews)

PHOTO:
Members of the PCGA 111the Auxiliary Squadron based in Subic Bay distributes 10 kilos of rice each to the more than 1,000 contract of service employees of the SBMA.

http://subicbaynews.net/?p=15759

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New SBMA chair to prioritize workers’ welfare

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) will prioritize the provision of benefits and incentives to SBMA workers who served as volunteers after the US Naval Base here closed down in 1992.

SBMA Chairman Martin Diño said during a media conference here that volunteers who are holding contractual positions in the agency shall be given priority in housing and retirement benefits and other incentives.

“When I first arrived in the SBMA, I first asked about the conditions of the volunteers and I promised them that I will see how SBMA could repay them for what they did for the agency,” he said.

He added that his administration will help those hired under contracts of service to look for permanent jobs in line with the President Duterte’s program to eliminate end-of-contract scheme, commonly known as “endo,” which limits workers’ contracts to a maximum of six months to avoid permanent hiring.

The chairman explained that his administration will conduct a study “to definitely end contractualization in accordance with COA (Commission on Audit) rules and regulations.”

The SBMA is still employing about 1,200 workers under contract of service (CS), mostly former volunteers who serve in ground maintenance and housekeeping operations, as well as other office positions.

Diño also said that the SBMA reorganization proposal submitted to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) shall be reviewed to make it more beneficial and responsive to the needs and direction of the agency.

“The proposed reorganization in the structure of the agency to cope with the present and realistic conditions in the Freeport, which is continuously growing in terms of investments, will be reviewed to make it fit and responsive to the direction the agency wishes to take,” Diño said.

He added that the new administration will implement the removal of any overlapping functions of offices, improve the healthcare program and benefits of all SBMA employees, and require all departments to improve their performance and output.

“SBMA employees should be the first to benefit from what their agency has been achieving, which made the Subic Bay Freeport the Number 1 tourism destination in the region and a contributor of billions of pesos to the national government,” Diño also said. (RAV/MPD-SBMA)

PHOTO: 

The Volunteers' shrine in Subic Bay Freeport where the names of 8,000 volunteers who protected and preserved military facilities left by the Americans after the 1992 base pullout had been etched in stone. (photo from travelbai.com)

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SBMA officials, staff spread early Christmas cheer

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), a government owned and controlled corporation (GOCC), is composed of employees with an employment status of either plantilla or contract of service (CS).

Most of those CS employees are the old ladies who sweep the streets and some building inside this premier Freeport. And being CS means that their bonuses are incorporated in their salaries, leaving almost no spare to save on a rainy day.


With most of them under “Salary Grade: 3,” expect that their monthly pay to stay within P7,000, not really enough to send their children to college. Now that the Yuletide season is upon us, these elderly women will be celebrating Christmas and New Year with only their usual monthly salary.

But the SBMA is not without any kind-hearted employees among its rank-and-file and executives. In a simple yet meaningful early Christmas gift-giving, employees and their bosses dug deep into their pockets and gave their less-fortunate workers of the SBMA food packs last weekend.

Spearheaded by the agency’s Legal Affairs Department, around 300 rank-and-file employees were given food packs by their fellow SBMA workers and the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary’s 111th Squadron.

PCGA 111th Squadron Commander Randy Escolango said that these are just small tokens for the services rendered by the less-fortunate workers to the SBMA. Escolango, a deputy administrator of the SBMA, said that both the Legal Affairs and the PCGA chipped-in to give these workers some Yuletide cheer. (Jonas Reyes, Manila Bulletin)

PHOTO:
GIFT-GIVING — (From left) Captain Henric David, Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary (PCGA) director, and PCGA 111th Squadron Commander Randy Escolango distribute a food pack to an employee of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority in their early Christmas gift-giving event last Friday.

http://www.mb.com.ph/sbma-officials-staff-spread-early-christmas-cheer/

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