Government workers to get P122 billion pay hike next year

MANILA, Philippines — The more than one million government officials and employees will receive a total of P122 billion in salary increase next year, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said yesterday.

Andaya, former budget secretary, said P52 billion is set aside for the fourth and last tranche of the four-year pay upgrading program under Executive Order 201 of former president Benigno Aquino III issued in February 2016.

He said a larger P70 billion is allocated to carry out the law doubling the basic salary of uniformed personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the military.

In January this year, President Duterte signed the PNP and military pay hike law, the Joint Resolution No. 1 of the House and the Senate.

Aquino’s EO 201 used to cover all state workers, including soldiers and policemen. It now applies only to civilian personnel, while Joint Resolution No. 1 is the governing statute for men in uniform.

Under EO 201, President Duterte’s monthly salary soared from P120,000 in 2016 to P300,000 this year. It will further jump to P400,000 next year. Every now and then, the Chief Executive complains of getting a small salary.

Aquino’s EO was preceded by EO 811 issued in 2009 by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and confirmed by Congress through Joint Resolution No. 4.

Arroyo’s issuance and the joint resolution contained the third wave of the period salary upgrading in the bureaucracy. It ran from 2009 to 2012.          

Andaya said the P122 billion for next year’s pay hike for civil servants and uniformed personnel accounts for almost a tenth of the P1.185-trillion budget for government salaries for 2019. 

Personnel services, the budget language for salaries, make up almost 32 percent of the Palace-proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for next year, he said.

The personnel services allocation, Andaya said, includes compensation for an additional 10,000 teachers, 10,000 policemen, 3,000 firemen and 2,000 jail officers.

“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,” he added. 

Based on a budget document, authorized civilian positions in the national government stood at 1.1 million in 2015.

This year, it is pegged at 1.32 million, which will increase to 1.41 million next year. 

Andaya said one reason for the increase is the hiring of additional personnel for the K-12 education program. 

“In fact, there are 105,000 vacant teaching positions that President Duterte wants filled,” he said.