DAVAO CITY—The increase in the salary of policemen up to P50,000 may not be doable within this year, incoming Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael “Mike” Sueno said after the incoming Philippine National Police chief admitted he may not be able to stop criminality in the next six months.
“We cannot really make an immediate increase,” Sueno told reporters here. “I don’t think so, maybe we can increase it slowly next year… Staggered is doable.”
Sueno said it is almost impossible to immediately raise the salary of policemen to as much as P50,000 because it will have to be studied, deliberated upon and approved by Congress.
“It will now depend on the legislative branch if it is possible that we increase the salary of the police. How about the others [security forces]? I don’t know what will be the implication of that,” Sueno said.
The salaries of the country’s 100,000 policemen range from P13,000 to P67,000 depending on their rank.
On June 12, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, the running mate of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, said he had sent a proposal to incoming PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa to increase policemen salaries to P50,000 to discourage corruption in their ranks.
But Sueno said they are also looking at the possibility of increasing the number of policemen and other security forces.
The incoming Interior secretary, however, did not say whether the delay in the proposed pay hike of policemen had anything to do with Dela Rosa’s admission that the PNP may not be able to achieve President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign promise to stop criminality in three to six months.
“In six months, it should be 100 percent. Our objective is that high,” Dela Rosa told journalists. “But I am sure we cannot achieve these goals.”
Saying he will resign if he fails to fulfill Duterte’s promise, he said the PNP’s strategy will be based on closely monitoring statistical targets.
“For example, in three to six months, 50 percent of the problem must be solved. After three months, we need to achieve another 60 percent,” he said.
“However, we cannot achieve an outright 100 percent. If we fail, at least [we resolved] 60 percent to 70 percent,” Dela Rosa added, pledging not to fudge crime statistics just so to make it appear that the police is succeeding in the promised anti-crime drive.
“I will present that to the President,” he said. “You judge if I failed or not.”