SENATE President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Saturday urged Malacañang to consult with leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives before finalizing its plan to adjust the salary of government workers this year without an enabling law.
Recto said the Budget and Management has agreed to adopt his proposal for executive action on the grant of the first tranche of salary adjustments for state workers as spelled out in the proposed Salary Standardization Law IV.
“With the bicameral committee still deadlocked on SSL IV, it is but proper for the Executive Department to step in and ensure that our government workers will receive the pay hike contained in the 2016 national budget,” the senator said.
But Recto cautioned Malacañang against unilateral implementation of the pay adjustments without consultation with Congress leaders, saying “points agreed upon during the legislative deliberations must be included in any presidential order implementing the pay hike.”
Foremost of these issues, he said, is non-reduction of so-called Magna Carta benefits currently being enjoyed by government workers.
“Both the Senate and the House invested so much time and effort in polishing the [SSL4] bill that it is just proper that improvements agreed upon be incorporated into whatever order the President will issue on salary standardization,” Recto pointed out.
“It can still be a unilateral act but consultative in so far as the process is concerned. The institution that appropriated the money must be consulted by the co-equal branch that will spend it,” he added.
“Congressional leaders are just a phone call or a text away. Pwede mag-Skype pa nga,” he said.
Recto added, “no harm will be done if the DBM will also solicit the view of heads of departments whose employees might be affected by the vague language of a few sections of the proposed SSL IV.”
Last Monday, Recto appealed to Malacañang to consider drafting a presidential order on salary standardization as “Plan B” after Congress adjourned for a four-month election break without passing the SSL IV.
Recto said that Congress has already appropriated the amount of P57.9 billion, representing the cost of the first annual installment of SSL IV.
“By issuing an executive order, the President will be merely implementing a program which, in principle, Congress has consented to,” he said.
In a separate statement, DBM Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said the “Executive has options within its power to effect the proposed compensation adjustment.”
Abad cited Section 13 of Presidential Decree No. 985 and Item 17 of Congress Joint Resolution No. 4, s. 2009, authorizing the President to periodically revise or update, upon the recommendation of the DBM, the government’s Compensation and Position Classification System.
Recto noted that despite the deadlock in the House-Senate negotiation on the proposed government pay hike, there was “tripartite agreement” on a provision guaranteeing that so-called Magna Carta benefits of government workers will not be taken away.
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