PGMA okays P18.4 billion for salary increase of gov’t workers

MANILA, June 18 (PNA) - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued yesterday Executive Order (EO) 811 allocating P18.4 billion for the salary increase of some 1.2 million state workers starting July 1.

The allocation will be taken from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund of the General Appropriations Act of 2009.

The President signed the EO before she left for a nine-day trip that will take her to Tokyo in Japan, and Brasilia, Suape and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

The P18.4 billion appropriation will cover the compensation adjustments of the first tranche of the Modified Salary Schedule for civilian personnel, and base pay for military and uniformed personnel in the national government.

The EO “adopts the first tranche of the modified salary schedule of civilian personnel and base pay schedule of military and uniformed personnel in the government, as well as the modified position classification system pursuant to Joint Resolution No.4 (s.2009).”

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, in a statement, said the President expressed her gratitude to both Houses of Congress for giving her the authority, through a joint resolution (Joint Resolution 4), to implement a new compensation program for government employees that will increase salaries by an average of 50 percent spread over four years, while setting the minimum wage of civil servants higher than those of their private sector counterparts starting July 1 this year.”

Ermita said the measure is aimed at “attracting skilled and competent personnel to work in government and retaining them on the long term, as well as assuaging the economic conditions of the government’s workers.”

He pointed out that the impact of the program will be such that by July 1, 2009, the daily minimum wage of government workers of P402 will be higher than that of their private sector counterparts which remains at P382.

All government personnel of the executive, legislative, judicial branches, constitutional commissions, state colleges and universities, government-owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions and local government units will be covered by the program.