Christmas will be merrier for more than one million state workers following the government’s decision to provide additional cash bonuses for them this month, Malacañang announced Tuesday.

“There will be a Christmas bonus and let us wait for (Department of Budget and Management) Secretary (Rolando) Andaya to finish his computation,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in a press briefing.

In an interview, Andaya confirmed that the Arroyo administration will dole out an additional Christmas bonus for all government employees, to be released before December 25. He said they are still determining the amount to be allocated for such cash assistance.

“The DBM has started the process of coordinating with different agencies to look for sources of extra cash gift or Christmas bonus. Hopefully, this week we can give a round figure,” he said.

According to the budget chief, the cash incentive, which is not included in the budget, will be sourced out principally from the national government coffers.

“What we’re discussing is that the big chunk of the bonus will be shouldered by the national government plus by the department savings,” Andaya said.

Remonde earlier said the President is “really in principle wants to make the Christmas especially for the government workers happy.”

Former Sen. Ralph Recto, who recently stepped down as socio-economic planning secretary, called on the government to grant an additional Christmas bonus on top of the regular year-end benefits of one month pay and cash gift of P5,000 to government employees.

According to Recto, the total year-end bonuses would reach P17.1 billion, which include cash benefits for civilian government personnel and pensioners of the Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Last year, the government provided an additional cash gift amounting to P5,000 each for state workers apart from the Christmas bonus they receive regularly every December.