Duterte may finally get P102,000 salary increase

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte may finally receive his salary increase of almost P102,000 a month.

Due to delays in the enactment of the proposed 2019 budget, the President signed Executive Order No. 76 allowing agencies to pay the increase from available funds in the reenacted 2018 appropriations law.

The same EO – signed last March 15 – has also authorized the implementation of the fourth tranche of salary hike for civilian state workers.

The order amended EO No. 201, which then president Benigno Aquino III issued in February 2016 and which contains the latest four-year salary adjustment program in the bureaucracy that ends this year.

“Due to the reenactment of the FY (fiscal year) 2018 GAA (General Appropriations Act), there is a need to identify an appropriate funding source to cover the requirements for the implementation of the fourth tranche compensation adjustment for civilian government personnel schedule in 2019 under EO No. 201,” the order read.

Under EO 201, Duterte’s pay will go up from P298,083 to P399,739. He has repeatedly complained that his salary was not enough for his two families.

Aquino did not benefit from his issuance. His monthly salary was P120,000, only a third of what his successor is receiving.

The lowest-paid government worker is getting a P1,000 salary increase, from P10,050 to P11,068. He will receive a maximum of P11,732 depending on his length of service.

The payment of the increase is retroactive to Jan. 1. Thus, government workers stand to receive their pay hike for three months possibly next week.

Former budget secretary and now Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Benjamin Diokno had refused to release funds for the adjustment, saying he would violate the law and the Constitution if he did so. –  With Jess Diaz, Cecille Suerte Felipe