SC: Cash incentive for NHA employees illegal

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed a Commission on Audit (COA) decision declaring as illegal the granting of incentive allowances amounting to P401,284 by the National Housing Authority (NHA) to four of its project personnel.

The SC ruling penned by Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno dismissed the petition filed by the NHA personnel seeking to annul a COA decision issued on Oct. 24, 2008.

The incentive allowance received by the five personnel was equivalent to 20 percent of their respective basic pay under NHA Resolution No. 464.

The high court held that at the time the NHA issued the resolution in 1982, Section 3 of Presidential Decree 1597 had already repealed all decrees, executive orders and issuances that authorized the grant of allowance to government officials or employees.

The SC said that Republic Act 6758 or the Compensation and Position Classification Act of 1989 provides that all allowances shall be deemed included in the standardized salary rates.

It ruled that the claim of the petitioners that RA 6758 does not apply to incentive allowances because these are merely temporary in nature and are given only to a few employees does not hold water.

The high tribunal said the Legal and Adjudication Office of COA had disallowed the total amount of P401,284.39, representing the first and second tranches of the incentive allowance granted to the petitioners Jerry Baviera, Carmencita Pineda, Menelio Rucat, and Doris Siao.