House approves higher pay for government rank and file

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives, voting 170-5 with one abstention, passed on third and final reading last night a bill granting the 1.5 million government personnel salary increases over four years starting Jan. 1 next year.

President Aquino and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) proposed the pay hike program contained in House Bill 6268.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora and Reps. Isidro Ungab and Eleandro Jesus Madrona, who chair the appropriations committee and the committee on accounts, respectively, are the authors of the measure.

The House did not change the DBM-recommended adjustments despite criticism from public school teachers and other low-paid state workers that they heavily favor officials who are already receiving fat salaries, allowances and other emoluments.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has told an appropriations committee hearing that when fully implemented after four years, the new salary adjustment program will have cost the government about P226 billion a year.

He said the salaries of government personnel covered by Salary Grades 1 to 13 would amount to more than 100 percent of their private sector counterparts.

On the other hand, the basic compensation of officials would be equivalent to 70 percent of corporate executives, he said.

Under the program, the lowest-paid worker, who holds Salary Grade 1 and has a basic monthly salary of P9,000, will receive an additional P2,000 over four years.

The lowest-paid teacher will get an increase of P2,295 after four years.

On the other hand, the President, who is the highest-paid official, will get about P280,000 more, increasing his pay to nearly P400,000 from P120,000.

Government workers have complained that the salary hike is skewed against low-ranked workers.

Public school teachers, who hold Salary Grade 11, said the proposed salary increase for them would amount to only about P500 a year.

Teachers comprise the biggest single group of workers in the bureaucracy.

They said while the highest-paid government workers including the president, vice president, cabinet secretaries, senators, congressmen, and justices will see increases of 186 to 223 percent, or by P167,809 (for Salary Grade 31) to P268,096 (for Salary Grade 33 for the president), the basic pay of the lowest 13 salary grades only increases by 12 to 23 percent, or just P2,068 (Salary Grade 1) to P3,796 (Salary Grade 13).

Research group IBON Foundation noted that the proposed increases do not include the planned mid-year 14th month pay and a year-end bonus of up to two months salary.

“While the bonuses will increase the final salaries received, the basic gross inequity in the plan remains,” it stressed.