Next Congress urged to review SSL 4

MANILA, Philippines – The next Congress should restudy the proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 4, which contains the planned government-wide salary increase that was supposed to take effect last Jan. 1.

Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., a former budget secretary, said yesterday the failure of the outgoing Congress to approve the proposed pay hike law gives the incoming 17th Congress time to review it.

He said the next batch of lawmakers “should improve the draft law, if it is resubmitted, and make it acceptable to all sectors of the bureaucracy.”

He said various stakeholders should submit their proposed changes to members of Congress.

Andaya, who is vice chairman of the House appropriations committee, noted that there have been complaints from several associations of government employees about the alleged defects of the proposed SSL 4.

Low-ranking personnel have complained that the draft law gives them a measly increase, while it grants bureaucrats who are already receiving fat paychecks and allowances an adjustment ranging from 76 percent to 240 percent.

Public school teachers will get an increase of P2,000 over four years, while members of Congress, Cabinet officials and justices will triple their salaries to more than P300,000.

The President’s salary will jump from P120,000 to almost P400,000.  There have also been complaints that the special benefits under Magna Carta laws being enjoyed by teachers, health and social workers, weathermen and scientists would be taken away in lieu of the planned pay hike.

Sen. Ralph Recto and House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II suggested that the entire financial impact of the planned four-year salary increase program should be looked into.

By their computations, taxpayers would be paying an additional P575 billion a year in salaries for government workers when the plan is fully implemented.

This is more than twice the P226 billion estimate of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Recto and Gonzales said for the first year alone, the proposed increase would cost P58 billion, or P232 billion for four years.

The amount is already P6 billion more than the DBM estimate, they said.

They said the P232 billion excludes the annual increments for the second, third and fourth years of implementation of the proposed SSL 4.