MANILA--President Rodrigo Duterte is set to announce a fresh round of salary increases for the military and police, aside from the continuation of Executive Order (EO) 201 which already increased government salaries starting this year.
Appropriations Committee Chair Karlo Nograles announced this during the 1st day of plenary deliberations of the 2017 budget at the Lower House.
Currently, the government is implementing the 1st tranche of EO 201 which sought to increase salaries of government employees.
However, Nograles announced that aside from continuing EO 201, the executive is set to submit to Congress a joint resolution that will amend the previous salary standardization laws and supplant EO 201.
ACT-Teachers party-list representative Rolando Tinio interjected that over P103 billion of the proposed budget is allocated for compensation adjustment, P63.24 billion for all employees, and an additional P39.5 billion for military and police personnel.
Tinio asked: "Magkano ba ang maasahan nilang (police and military) increase? I think dapat lang po na mashare eh magandang balita ito para sa pulis at militar para ipaalam na natin magkano."
Nograles responded that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is in close coordination with President Rodrigo Duterte regarding salary adjustments.
"I believe we must allow the president the prerogative to make the announcement in terms of how much military and personnel will receive depending on their rank but this P39.59 billion is under the miscellaneous personal benefits fund (MPBF). It will be the DBM who will be disbursing it," Nograles said.
He added that he has assurances from the DBM that by 2017, salary adjustments will be immediately released to the Department of National Defense, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Philippine National Police and other agencies.
"Let's wait for the president to make the announcement and what sort of scheme in the distribution we will be following. In fact, that will also be part of what will be submitted for consideration of Congress under a joint resolution," Nograles added.
A joint resolution has the effect of law if approved by both houses of Congress.
Nograles defended the budget allocations for 2017 to Tinio, saying that the P63.24 billion allocated for compensation adjustment is for the continuation of EO 201.
He explained that out of the P63.24 billion, P51 billion is for the 1,090,375 civilian positions while P12.34 billion is for the 359, 083 military and other uniformed personnel. A total of 1,448 458 positions in government are expected to benefit from the P63.24 billion allocation.
However, Nograles added that the executive will soon submit a proposed joint resolution.
"As I understand it, the executive branch is helping the legislative branch to come up with a joint resolution to act as our legal cover and basis for providing this additional salaries to the civilian and military and uniformed personnel," he said.
Tinio then explained that government employees, specifically public school teachers, were dissatisfied.
"Sa kaso ng ordinaryong employees, usually pumapatak lang sa P500 a month gross pa yun ang magiging increase nila," Tinio said.
Tinio later pointed out that P39.6 billion of the MPBF under the special purpose funds of the president is allocated for a separate salary adjustment for the military and police personnel which was confirmed by Nograles.
President Duterte has been keen in increasing the salaries of the military and police as part of his campaign promises.
SOURCE: ABS-CBN
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