Wage hike for state workers eyed
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is open to proposing to President Duterte the issuance of an executive order (EO) allowing the increase in the wages of government employees starting next year.
Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, bared this Tuesday while sponsoring the proposed 2020 national budget.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto likewise urged the executive branch to act on its promise of giving government workers, including teachers, a pay raise starting next year.
Recto, during plenary debates on the 14.1-trillion 2020 General Appropriations Bill, raised the allocation in the national budget for the salary increase of government workers.
He stressed that the government only has one month remaining to come up with a new Salary Standardization Law (SSL).
Asked if the planned salary hike requires legislative push, Angara, responding in behalf of DBM Secretary Wendel Avisado, said the previous salary increases were implemented by virtue of an executive order signed by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2016.
“So pwedeng gawin na nila through an EO. Huwag nang hintayin ‘yong Congress (they can do it on their own through an EO. They
don’t have to wait for Congress),” Recto said.
Angara said the executive preferred to wait for the Congressapproved SSL 5 for another round of salary increase.
“We prefer that they do it already. Why? They already have an idea of the appropriated P32 billion. Just do it, why not?” Recto interjected, noting that the long legislative proceedings would delay the salary increase.
On Wednesday, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines urged senators to augment the “measly” 132-billion allocation for salary increase of government workers in the 2020 national budget.
The teachers’ group reiterated its demand for salary hike following Recto’s call to DBM to endorse an executive order that will enable the pay hike, instead of waiting for its legislation.
Led by ACT, public school teachers held a protest caravan to the Senate to join the “People’s Budget Fight” march as the chamber deliberates on the 2020 national budget.
“The ball is now in the hands of the Senate and the least it can do is to correct the pitiful allocation for our pay hike by no less than doubling it,” ACT National Chairperson Joselyn Martinez.
Angara, during the plenary debate, said President Duterte wants to increase the allocation to P43 billion.
“So issue the EO, para January may salary increase na ang mga empleyado (so that employees will have the salary increase by January),” Recto said.
The DBM reportedly said it would heed Recto’s appeal.
“Secretary Avisado seems open to the idea of doing the EO,” Angara said.
The DBM had set aside a 131.1billion funding for the SSL 5 in the 2020 budget.
It proposed a 10-percent raise in the basic salary of government workers for three years starting January, 2020 to January, 2022.
Teachers’ apprehension
Meanwhile, ACT expressed apprehension over the proposal for a DBM-endorsed EO for government workers’ salary increase, saying the DBM “already revealed itself to be stingy on the pay hike matter.”
ACT noted that DBM officials – in a Senate hearing last month – said that it only intends to hike civilian state workers’ salaries by 21 percent to be divided in three tranches.
“DBM’s proposal would only amount to 11,400 increase in the monthly salaries of teachers next year, it’s a far cry from our demand
of raising the base pay of teachers from the current 120,754 to 130,000 monthly, it’s not enough,” Martinez said.
The group expressed hope that the Senate would “to be true to its words when it said that they will prioritize human resource development, agriculture, and social services’ in next year’s budget” because such commitment should “translate to substantially higher allocations for salary increase of government employees, subsidy to farmers, and reversal of budgets cuts in health and education.”
Last July in his State of the Nation Address, President Duterte appealed to lawmakers to pass a new SSL to include teachers, as the four-tranche wage increase under the current SSL ends this year.
Last month, he assured that his administration is already working on the pay increase for teachers and that “it will come this year.”
In the Senate, there are at least three SSL bills seeking to modify and increase the salaries of civilian government workers, that of Recto, and Sens. Joel Villanueva and Christopher Go.
Former President Aquino in 2016 issued EO No. 201 authorizing the salary increase of more than one million government employees to be implemented in four tranches until 2019. (With a report from Merlina Hernando-Malipot)