Trillanes: Pay hike among cops, soldiers because of Aquino, not Duterte

The increase in the salaries of soldiers and policemen this year was not through the efforts of President Rodrigo Duterte but due to the executive order signed during the last months of the Aquino administration, an opposition senator said Friday.

In a statement, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV reminded Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel that their pay hike is the second tranche of former President Benigno Aquino III's Executive Order 201, which covers salary increases for government workers. 

“Our military and police personnel should be aware that their allowances, together with the salaries of all government employees, have significantly increased since 2016, and will continue to increase until 2019," said Trillanes.

"This increase is actualized by EO 201 signed by the previous administration. President Duterte has nothing to do with this. His promise to double the salaries of soldiers and policemen remains an unfulfilled promise," he added.

Under EO 201, military, police and other uniformed personnel will receive increase in their monthly provisional allowance ranging from P547 to P35,260; hazard pay, amounting to P570; and officers’ allowance, ranging from P3,000 to P18,000.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno had earlier admitted that the salary adjustment of police and military was a follow through of Aquino's EO on government workers' pay hike. 

Trillanes' statement came after Marine Col. Edgard Arevalo, chief of the Armed Forces' Public Affairs Office, expressed gratitude to Duterte for the military personnel’s wage increase.

According to Arevalo, soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines, including civilian personnel, were happily surprised when they received their respective increases reflected in their first pay slip in 2017. —John Ted Cordero/KBK, GMA News