By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — The Progressive Alliance of Capitol Employees (PACE) asked the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) to support the passage of the proposed salary increase for government employees.
PACE believes the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) IV will “uplift the living conditions” of state workers.
“PACE believes in the power of legislation and therefore appeals to the members of the SP to pass a resolution supporting SSL IV,” the alliance said in a resolution dated May 13, 2014.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV filed Senate Bill 1689, which seeks to increase the base pay of all civil servants, from those holding lowest government ranks, such as administrative aides, to the President.
It also seeks to increase the monthly salaries of members of the Senate and House of Representatives to more than P350,000 from the current P90,000.
Trillanes’ measure also proposes an across-the-board salary raise for all military and uniformed personnel in the country.
The bill seeks to raise the base pays of the lowest government rank (Job Grade 1) to P16,000 from P9,000, and the highest government rank (the President) to P500,000 from P120,000.
For military and uniformed personnel, the base pay will range from P23,000 for a private to P282,800 for a four-star general.
The vice president, the Senate president and the House speaker will have a base pay of P432,800 under Job Grade 32, while senators and Lower House representatives will have a base pay of P352,800 under Job Grade 31.
Trillanes, chair of the Senate committee on civil service and government reorganization, said he views his bill as an anti-corruption measure.
“Due to the competitive compensation package, our public servants will no longer consider resorting to unscrupulous activities to augment their meager income, and instead focus their efforts and energy to public service, curbing corruption and cutting red tape,” he said.
The first version of SSL was enacted in 1989, the second, in 1994, and the third, in 2009. The fourth and last installment of SSL III was given in 2012.
In 2006, state workers received a P1,000 across-the-board wage increase, and a 10-percent increase in 2007 and 2008 before the four-installment SSL III took effect in July 2009.
In 2008, the Department of Budget and Management estimated that the full implementation of SSL III would cost P128 billion a year.
President Benigno Aquino III, however, has reservations on increasing the state workers’ salary.
Aquino said there are 1.6 million people in the bureaucracy, and increasing their salary would entail a huge amount of money.
He said the government has just finished implementing SSL III; granting another increase may result in deficit.
A budget deficit, he said, could affect the country’s credit ratings. He said the government, at this time, could not determine where to get funds for a salary increase./PN
