STATE civilian employees and members of the police and military will get the second of four-tranche salary increase beginning this month, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday.
"There will be another round of salary increase this year, both for civilian and military and policemen," said Diokno in a press briefing.
The Budget chief said the salary hike is part of the government's program to double the compensation of police and soldiers by 2018.
"We would be able to comply with the desire of the President to double their take home pay by January of 2018," said Diokno. President Rodrigo Duterte signed in September 2016 an executive order to increase the combat duty pay and combat incentive pay of soldiers and policemen.
In a statement sent to reporters, Diokno said the budget department had already submitted a joint resolution to the Office of the President, which seeks to raise the regular pay of the government forces.
The proposed base pay hike, Diokno said, is on top of the implementation of the second salary adjustment among government employees, including members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Starting January 1 this year, Diokno said he government had already implemented the second tranche of the salary adjustment, which was under the Salary Standardization Law passed by Duterte's predecessor, then-President Benigno Aquino III.
The first tranche of the adjustment already took effect on January 1 last year, while the two subsequent and final tranches would begin on January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2019, respectively.
"We are now on our second tranche of a four-tranche salary adjustment, okay? As you know, we gave the salary increase last year. There will be another round of salary increase this year, both for civilian and military and policemen," Diokno said. "They're part of the four-tranche system that we are implementing."
Diokno said the proposed double pay for soldiers and police would require the concurrence of Congress. He, however, was confident that the lawmakers would be amenable to the proposal.
"Going by the behavior of Congress, they won't object to a salary increase because it's a popular move," he said. (Sunnex)