By Jester P.
Manblastas billion over three
THE House leadership hailed President Rodrigo
Duterte's plan to raise Ealarieg. of state workels,
includingteachers and nurses in the next thlee yea$.
"It shows the President's sincere 'malasakit' to the
plight of our state workers. We will work very hard to
ensure fu ndingf or govemmmtworke$'salaiy increase,"
said House Majodty l€ader and Leyte Rep. Martin
Romualdez, who chais the House Committee on Rulet
referring to the proposed Salary Standafdizafon Law
(ssl) s.
Another House leader said that the Salary Standard-
ization Law 5 will lajse the salaies of the state worke$,
including the teachers and nur3es, by 15 percent in the
Albay itep. Joey Salceda, chairman of the House
Cornmittee on Ways and Means, dssued those in the
bracket of salary Crade I to 17 they will get higher
increases.
V/hilethoseinSG18-33,includingthePresidentand
congressmen, * illreceive lower increases.
Because of the inclusion of some P32 billion budget
intended for sdlary adjustmmts, the Department of
Budget and Managemenl (DBM) will submit to Con-
gress a proposal for SSL 5.
According to Salced4 based on a study commis-
sioned by DBN4, the administration is set to spend P110
yeaJs for its civil selvalrts including
nurses al1d teachels.
"The 2020 budget provides for P32 billion in wage
increase and P4 billion for miscellaneous benefits,"
Salceda said.
Salceda added that the salary adjustrnents havebeen
programmed within the organic capacity of the govem-
ment and need no new taxes to rmderwrite it.
"fte adjqsl-rnents will preserve and somewhat im-
prove the purchasing power ofci \d servan ts ( ons idering
the consumer price inflation of 3.4 percent over the past
three years {2010 - 1.8 percenl, 3.2 percent - 2017 and
2018 - 5.2 percent)," said Salceda.
Once approved, more than one million govemment
officials and employe$ will get a new lound of salary
increase sta rting nexi year.
The latest four-year compensation adjustment pro-
gram gave a substantial increase to officialt starting
from lower and mid-level bureaucmts up to the Presi-
dent
. Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, chairman oI the
House of Representdtives Committee on Appropria-
tiorE, confirmed tha t the p ro posed P4. I -trillion na fion al
budget for next year, includes P32 billion for salary
adiustments.
The President has rcpedtedly promised to lncrease
the salarv of teachers and nurses after he doubled the
monthlylay of soldiers and policemen. p4$c,Z