DBM: Civilian gov’t workers to enjoy yearly pay hike until 2022

MANILA, Philippines — Civilian government employees will enjoy yearly salary increases until 2022, or the last year of President Rodrigo Duterte in office, under the proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 5, Acting Budget Secretary Wendel E. Avisado said Friday.

“It is programmed for three years starting 2020, thus the corresponding funding requirements must be included in the annual national expenditure program (NEP),” Avisado told the Inquirer.

In a separate interview, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Assistant Secretary Rolando U. Toledo noted that the upcoming SSL 5 could be the shortest, as the previous SSLs had been usually implemented for at least four years.

Toledo said DBM has yet to determine the total cost to implement SSL 5 in the next three years.

Avisado earlier said the planned SSL 5 had P31.1-billion funding under the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund in the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.

Last Thursday, Avisado told the House appropriations committee that the Office of the President will transmit the proposed measure to Congress next month as DBM had decided that the salary hike must be covered by a law.

For his part, Toledo said a law will be a “stronger” basis for the annual salary increases – “you will already have a legal basis if it’s a law; if it’s an EO [executive order], there may be changes when the administrations change,” he explained.

Avisado said the amount allocated for 2020 was based on a survey study the DBM conducted in coordination with the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or Controlled Corporations (GCG).

According to Avisado, GCG was expected to submit a report in relation to the proposed salary increase within the month.

The lowest salary grade was expected to enjoy a 10-percent increase in pay under the proposal, Avisado said.

Next year’s allocation for another round of salary raise was nonetheless lower than the P51-billion budget for this year, during which the fourth tranche of SSL 4 was implemented.

The current SSL was implemented during the past four years under EO No. 201 issued by former President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2016.

The previous administration had lacked time to enact the salary adjustments into law as the measure came too close to the 2016 national elections.

The fourth tranche of salary hikes under SSL 4 was nonetheless delayed due to the late passage of the P3.7-trillion 2019 budget.

DBM data provided to the Inquirer showed that as of July, the government had over 1.2 million civilian workers.