The bicameral conference on the proposed Salary Standardization Law 4 must be able to break the impasse on the measure despite President Benigno Aquino III’s executive order authorizing the release of the first tranche of the proposed government salary increase, a House official said on Saturday.
House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II said that while the President’s EO was a welcome development, Congress still has to pass the bill on SSL to ensure the continuity of the release of funds to the intended beneficiaries.
“While it is a most welcome development for the 1.3 million civilian government, including military and personnel in uniform, I hope that the bicam is able to resolve the deadlock in so far as the Senate amendment of the indexation of the retirement pay of military personnel,” Gonzales told The Standard.
“If not, then the next Congress has to pass a bill that will make effective the second to the fourth tranche of the SSL,” Gonzales added.
Congressmen Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela, Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite and Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar also welcomed the President’s EO on SSL, even as they hope that the congressional deadlock on the proposed measure will be addressed properly.
Albano, House contingent head for the Minority Bloc of the Commission on Appointments, agreed with Gonzales that there must be a continuity on the release of funds as additional benefits for civilian and military and uniformed personnel as mandated by the proposed SSL 4 law.
“An executive order will do, for now. But Congress has to pass a law for the purpose to also ensure the availability of funds,” Albano, member for the minority bloc of the House committee on appropriations, said.
Barzaga said “anything that will benefit the President’s avowed ‘Bosses’ is a welcome development.”
Evardone, also a member of the House appropriations committee, said that the beneficiaries of the SSL 4 deserve to get the amount provided to them by the government.
Last Friday, President Aquino signed the Department of Budget and Management-proposed EO modifying the salary schedule and authorizing the grant of additional benefits for both civilian and military and uniformed personnel.
DBM Secretary Florencio Abad, in a statement, said the EO effects compensation adjustments for this year as an interim measure to implement Tranche 1 of the proposed SSL, the full year requirement for which has already been provided in the 2016 national budget.
