1st payday of 2019: No government pay hike

MANILA, Philippines — Government workers were unable to get their salary increase on the first payday of the year last Tuesday after the Supreme Court deferred action on a petition by a group of government personnel, asking the SC to compel the Department of Budget  and Management (DBM) to release the fourth and final tranche of wage increases for state workers.

SC justices tackled the petition in their session last Tuesday, but decided to defer action on the urgent relief sought by the group led by House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr., particularly the issuance of a preliminary mandatory injunction against the DBM and its chief Benjamin Diokno.

“The Court reset its deliberations for Jan. 22, 2019,” the SC public information office said in an advisory.

An insider explained that the magistrates did not see the need to immediately decide on the plea in the petition.

Diokno said earlier that the fourth tranche would be released next month once Congress passes the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2019, which he said is necessary to fund the salary increases that would amount to P42.7 billion for the entire year. He had also assured government workers that the increase for January would be covered by the funds to be released upon passage of the GAA.

Andaya’s petition filed last Monday asked the Court to compel the DBM to implement the salary adjustment schedule even with the government using a reenacted budget for the meantime due to delayed passage by Congress of the GAA for this year.

Petitioners have argued that the release of the fourth tranche under Executive Order 201 signed by former president Benigno Aquino III in 2016 should be a ministerial duty on the part of the DBM.

Andaya and about 50 other government employees cited two alternatives for the DBM to cover for the P42.7 billion necessary for the fourth tranche of increases – the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) and the savings from the re-enacted 2018 budget.

They explained that the MPBF currently has P99.446 billion, which is “allowed to be used for payments of personal benefits, such as deficiencies in authorized salaries, bonuses, allowances, associated premiums and other similar personnel benefits of National Government personnel, among others.”

Petitioners revealed that P75 billion from the MPBF fund is allotted for “Payment of Compensation Adjustment” and “Funding Requirements for Staffing Modifications and Upgrading and Salaries,” which could be used by the DBM for the fourth tranche of salary increases.

Petitioners further suggested that the DBM may get just one-fourth of the required funding for the fourth tranche of about P10.676 billion “to cover for the first three months of 2019... considering that the 2019 GAA may still be passed within the first quarter of the year 2019.”

As another contingency, petitioners said the DBM may utilize the savings under the reenacted 2018 national budget.

Diokno earlier explained that the fourth tranche could not be immediately released due to the delayed congressional approval of the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019, saying the GAA is a necessary “legal basis” for such funding.  

Andaya and Diokno were at loggerheads over the House leader’s accusation that the DBM chief had inserted P51 billion in allegedly anomalous road projects in the 2019 budget.