P121.7 B earmarked from 2019 budget for gov't pay hike
Published Aug 4, 2018 05:28 pm
By Ben Rosario
A total of P121.7 billion is being sought by the Duterte administration in the proposed 2019 national budget to cover for the salary increases of civilian and uniformed personnel in the national government.
(EPA / MANILA BULLETIN)
House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. made the disclosure even as members of the House Committee on Appropriations questioned the Department of Budget and Management for slashing the Department of Agrarian Reform 2019 budget by P2 billion.
Andaya, a former budget secretary, revealed that of the P121.7 billion sought to be earmarked for salary adjustments, P51.7 billion will be allocated to cover the fourth and final tranche of the Salary Standardization Law IV for civilian employes of government.
The remainder, at least P70 billion, will finance the second installment of the law the provides hikes in the base pay of soldiers, policemen, jail and fire officers and coast guards.
Andaya said the P121. 7 billion proposed budget covers almost a tenth of the P1.185 trillion budget for personnel services for 2019.
Personnel services or PS, in turn, makes up for almost 32 percent of the Palace-submitted P3.757 trillion government spending request for next year, the six-term Camarines Sur lawmaker said.
But the P1.185 trillion PS allocation, he explained, funds the first-year compensation for the 10,000 Teacher 1; 10,000 Police Officer 1; 3,000 Fire Officer 1; 2,000 Jail Officer 1 and other positions to be created in the bureaucracy next year.
The increase in the number of government employees and retired uniformed personnel, triggers a corresponding hike in the payroll and pension cost of the government, Andaya said.
Based on a DBM document, authorized civilian positions in the national government was 1.1 million in 2015. This year it is pegged at 1.32 million and is programmed to reach 1.41 million next year.
The SSL IV implements Executive Order 201 signed by President Benigno Aquino III on February, 2016. The presidential directive provides for a four-year program to hike salaries of public sector workers.
Andaya explained that prior to SSL IV, then president and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed EO 811 that providcxvb;”
]_03 ed for an SSL III that increased salaries of government employes on a four-year installment basis starting 2009.
To cover salary increases for uniformed personnel, Congress Joint Resolution NO. 1 was adopted. It was signed by President Duterte on January, 2018.
Meanwhile, congressmen called on DBM to justify the P2-billion cut in DAR’s proposed allocation for next year.
Reps. Joey Sarte Salceda (PDP-Laban, Albay) and Tom Villarin (ABkayan Partylist) aired concerns that the cut might have an impact on the effective implementation of the agrarian reform program of government.
(EPA / MANILA BULLETIN)
House Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. made the disclosure even as members of the House Committee on Appropriations questioned the Department of Budget and Management for slashing the Department of Agrarian Reform 2019 budget by P2 billion.
Andaya, a former budget secretary, revealed that of the P121.7 billion sought to be earmarked for salary adjustments, P51.7 billion will be allocated to cover the fourth and final tranche of the Salary Standardization Law IV for civilian employes of government.
The remainder, at least P70 billion, will finance the second installment of the law the provides hikes in the base pay of soldiers, policemen, jail and fire officers and coast guards.
Andaya said the P121. 7 billion proposed budget covers almost a tenth of the P1.185 trillion budget for personnel services for 2019.
Personnel services or PS, in turn, makes up for almost 32 percent of the Palace-submitted P3.757 trillion government spending request for next year, the six-term Camarines Sur lawmaker said.
But the P1.185 trillion PS allocation, he explained, funds the first-year compensation for the 10,000 Teacher 1; 10,000 Police Officer 1; 3,000 Fire Officer 1; 2,000 Jail Officer 1 and other positions to be created in the bureaucracy next year.
The increase in the number of government employees and retired uniformed personnel, triggers a corresponding hike in the payroll and pension cost of the government, Andaya said.
Based on a DBM document, authorized civilian positions in the national government was 1.1 million in 2015. This year it is pegged at 1.32 million and is programmed to reach 1.41 million next year.
The SSL IV implements Executive Order 201 signed by President Benigno Aquino III on February, 2016. The presidential directive provides for a four-year program to hike salaries of public sector workers.
Andaya explained that prior to SSL IV, then president and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed EO 811 that providcxvb;”
]_03 ed for an SSL III that increased salaries of government employes on a four-year installment basis starting 2009.
To cover salary increases for uniformed personnel, Congress Joint Resolution NO. 1 was adopted. It was signed by President Duterte on January, 2018.
Meanwhile, congressmen called on DBM to justify the P2-billion cut in DAR’s proposed allocation for next year.
Reps. Joey Sarte Salceda (PDP-Laban, Albay) and Tom Villarin (ABkayan Partylist) aired concerns that the cut might have an impact on the effective implementation of the agrarian reform program of government.