ONLY President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature is needed before the base pay of the police and the military can be increased across the board on the first payday of 2018, the Budget Department said Wednesday.
“The Senate President and House Speaker signed yesterday the joint resolution increasing the pay of military and other uniformed personnel in government,” Diokno said during the ‘Breakfast with Ben’ media forum in Manila.
“So by January that should start,” he said, noting that the President is expected to sign the joint resolution this week.
The President, during the 82nd Anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Wednesday, once again vowed to increase the pay for uniformed personnel beginning January 2018.
“There is a considerable increase in your salary,” Duterte said.
“I promised you I will double your salary. I told Congress to fulfill my promise because if that does not pass, I will resign,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.
He also assured the soldiers that their children would get funding support for education until college.
“The government will support all your endeavors as we realize a more resilient government. Your children will continue to go to school until college,” the President said.
The resolution will double the base pay of a police officer (PO) I in the Philippine National Police, a private in the Department of National Defense, and equivalent ranks in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Public Safety College, Philippine Coast Guard, and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority.
Overall, the salary adjustments will result in a 58.7 percent average increase for all uniformed personnel effective Jan. 1, 2018.
The Budget Department has already allotted more than P64.2 billion under the 2018 national budget.
Increases, however, are rank-sensitive, Diokno said, adding that the joint Congress resolution had clauses preventing the increase in pension rates, which will remain in their 2016 rates.
The proposed base pay hike is on top of the second tranche of the Salary Standardization (Executive Order No. 201, s. 2016), which increases the compensation of government employees, including military and uniformed personnel, Diokno said.
The net take-home pay will be much higher than the previous arrangement since the Longevity Pay is tax-exempt, while the interim allowances (provisional and officers’ allowances) are subject to income tax. Tax-exempt collateral allowances (e.g., flying pay, sea duty pay, instructor’s duty pay, etc.) are expected to increase as well.
The increase in the compensation will be funded from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund and from any available allotment in the respective budgets of the agencies concerned.
In 2016, the PNP and AFP received greater benefits due to an increase in the allowances through Executive Order No. 3, increasing the combat duty pay and combat incentive pay of soldiers and policemen.