House to approve government pay hike next week

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives is scheduled to approve the bill on the new round of salary increases in the bureaucracy on third and final reading when Congress resumes its session next week.

Leaders of the chamber said they would put the measure to a vote if a quorum were mustered.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales ll, Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora, and Representatives Isidro Ungab of Davao City and Eleandro Jesus Madrona of Romblon, who chair the appropriations committee and the committee on accounts, respectively, are the authors of Bill 6268.

It contains the proposed Salary Standardization Law of 2015, which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has drafted.

Ungab said the DBM is mandated under Joint Resolution No. 4, which Congress passed in July 2009, to review salaries in government every three years.

“Since the last salary increase was given in June 2012, the review is due this year. That is the DBM, with the approval of President Aquino, presented its proposal to Congress,” he said.

The pay hike will be given starting on Jan. 1, 2016.

Critics said officials who receive fat salaries will get a higher increase while low-paid personnel would be given a small adjustment, it said.