DESPITE Congress's failure to approve the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte has found a way to implement the scheduled salary hike of government employees this year.
Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) 75 on March 15, implementing the fourth tranche of salary increase for workers in government even though Congress has yet to pass the proposed 2019 budget spending.
Under EO 201, inked by former President Benigno Aquino III on February 19, 2016, all government workers will receive salary increase in four tranches.
The implementation of first round of pay hike began in 2016, while the last round of increase was initially scheduled in January 2019.
Section 15 of EO 201 provides that the funding requirements for the compensation adjustment in government will be taken from the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The Duterte government, however, was prevented from implementing the fourth and last tranche of salary for government workers in January 2019, since the 2019 general appropriations bill has yet to be passed into law.
Duterte's EO 75 modified EO 201, in an effort to implement the last tranche.
EO 75 notes that pending the enactment of proposed 2019 budget, funding requirements for compensation adjustment this year would be charged "against any available appropriations under the FY (fiscal year) 2018 GAA, as reenacted, to be determined by the DBM, subject to existing budgeting, accounting and auditing rules and regulation."
"Due to the reenactment of the FY 2018 FAA, there is a need to identify an appropriate funding source to cover the requirements for the implementation of the fourth tranche compensation adjustment for civilian government personnel scheduled in 2019 under EO 201," the EO read.
Palace released a copy of the EO on Wednesday, March 20. (SunStar Philippines)