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Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Arroyo pushes for gov't workers' pay hike
MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be sending a bill to Congress Tuesday that will seek to grant an average 10 percent increase in the base pay of government employees effective July 2007.
"We started 2006 with a pay hike for government workers and we will end it with a vow to do it again next year," the President said in a brief speech at the end of the traditional New Year's Eve mass in Baguio City Sunday.
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This bill governs the usage of the P10.3 billion which we have set aside as the first installment of a merit-based, performance-driven compensation reform package for public sector workers.
"I am asking Congress to cap its impressive run of legislation with the passage of this important bill," Arroyo said.
"And come July, when the next legislature convenes, I will stand before our legislators to plead for the speedy passage of the third edition of the Salary Standardization Law, one that will not only increase the pay of state workers but boost the productivity of government as well," she added.
These measures distill inputs from the field, best managerial practices, performance benchmarks and projected revenue streams of the government, all with the interest of the public in mind.
"When we embarked on our mission to put our fiscal house in order, we asked government workers to share the burden of the people. Now that we have turned the corner, it is time for their share of the social payback of economic reforms," she said.
The President also sees 2007 as the year when the ordinary Filipino families will enjoy their share of the social payback of the tough policy reforms instituted by the government in 2005-2006 to rev up the economy.
The President urged the people to join her in praying that her New Year's wish for the nation would come true.
"I would like to ask for your prayers so that the year 2007 will be the year when we can have a social payback or when the people, the ordinary families of the Philippines, will be able to feel the fruits of all the difficult economic reforms that we had had to face in 2005 and 2006," the President said.
"In other words, may it (2007) be the year when it will all come together and may it all be done for the greater glory of GOD," she added.
Among the radical economic measures the President implemented to boost government revenues were the Expanded Value Added Tax (VAT) Law, which raised the VAT from 10 percent to 12 percent, and the Lateral Attrition Law which mandated revenue collecting agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to attain their specified monthly collection targets, or face stiff penalties. (PNA/OPS/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (January 2, 2007 issue)
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