Palace backs bill hiking gov’t wages

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang supports the passge of a bill that seeks to increase the salaries of all government personnel including the president and members of Congress.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said, however, that public school teachers, soldiers, policemen and career employees should be given priority in any pay raise.

Coloma said the bill is patterned after Singapore, where state workers’ salaries are equivalent to those in the private sector.

He said the government should come up with an estimate of the budget to be allotted to implement a new pay scale, and how it can be incorporated in the “budget priorities” of the administration like public infrastructure and poverty reduction.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, author of the proposed measure, stressed the need to increase the salaries of government workers, particularly high officials, including senators and congressmen, to eliminate corruption in government.

Senate Bill 1689, or the proposed Salary Standardization Law 4, aims to make the government compensation system competitive with the private sector.

Under the proposed law, the government shall adopt an omnibus compensation and position classification system for civil servants and military and uniformed personnel.

Trillanes, an ally of Aquino, said the government would attract, retain and maintain competent employees with an improved compensation system.

He said the measure also seeks to prevent the exodus of professionals, scientists and highly skilled workers abroad, citing the case of many Filipino public school teachers, doctors and state meteorologists.

“Due to the competitive compensation package, our public servants will no longer consider resorting to unscrupulous activities in order to augment their meager income and, instead, focus their efforts and energy to public service, curbing corruption and cutting red tape,” Trillanes said.

The bill seeks to raise the base pay of the lowest government rank, Job Grade 1, to P16,000 from the present rate of P9,000.

The base pay of the President will also increase to P500,000 from the present P120,000.

For military and uniformed personnel, base pay should range from P23,000 for a private to P282,800 for a four-star general.

The vice president, the Senate president and the speaker of the House, which is equivalent to Job Grade 32, will have a base pay of P432,800.

Senators and members of the House of Representatives (job grade 31) will have a base pay of P352,800.

No guarantee

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, president of the Centrist Democratic Party, said increasing the salaries of top government officials is no guarantee that corruption will be reduced.

“Public service is a calling, a vocation. One must not want to be a public official because of high salaries,” Rodriguez told The STAR. “Besides, it’s a huge expense, granting salary increases would mean less money for education, health, housing and livelihood.”

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said the intention of the bill is good but it must be backed up by fund sources.

“It is easier said than done. We cannot do it without new sources of funds. I cannot reconcile the ‘praise releases’ of some officials who wanted to reduce taxes and here comes another who wants to raise salaries,” Ungab said.

“Even a small business will collapse if you have more expenditures than your revenues,” he added.

Parañaque City Rep. Gustavo Tambunting said “no matter how high a salary you give an official, if he or she wants to commit corruption, he or she will commit corruption.”

However, Reps. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar and Romero Quimbo of Marikina City support Trillanes’ bill.

Evardone said the bill should not benefit incumbent officials.

“Worldwide practice has shown that one of the biggest ways to cleanse a government of corruption is to provide salaries that are commensurate to the work that’s done,” Quimbo said.

“This is the classic example of Singapore and Korea. But this alone will not solve the problem. You also need to put in place ironclad transparency measures that ensure accountability of public officers,” he said.

Comelec employees

Meanwhile, employees of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) renewed their demand for an increase in wages.

In a press briefing, Comelec-Employees Union president Mac Ramirez said their meager salary had been causing demoralization among employees.

“We love our job and we are doing our best to make sure that we have a clean and honest elections. But the salary given to us (is) not commensurate (to) our efforts and the risk that we face, especially those in the field,” he said. – With Sheila Crisostomo, Paolo Romero