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Duterte hikes salaries of gov’t workers despite reenacted budget


President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the use of available funds in the reenacted 2018 national budget for the implementation of the fourth tranche of salary increases for government employees scheduled this year.

Duterte on March 15 signed Executive Order 76 which amended Section 15 of the EO 201 issued during the Aquino administration pertaining to funding sources for the compensation adjustment covering years 2017 to 2019.

Under the new order, the President said that pending the enactment of the 2019 national budget, the funding requirements for the salary hike for this year shall be charged against "any available appropriations" under the 2018 budget to be determined by the Department of Budget and Management, "subject to existing budgeting, accounting and auditing rules and regulations."

EO 76 will take effect immediately upon its publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

In a statement, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte issued the order to address the delay in the implementation of salary adjustments.

"The President does not want to prolong the overdue salary increase that our public servants, who have been working tirelessly and silently for the last two months, have been looking forward to," Panelo said.

Former Budget Secretary and now Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno in January said that the wage hike may only be implemented once the 2019 budget is passed into law.

This prompted House appropriations committee chairman Rolando Andaya Jr. to file a petition before the Supreme Court asking the tribunal to order the DBM to implement the salary increases.

The DBM estimated the fourth tranche of wage hikes for government workers under the Salary Standardization Law to cost some P40 to P50 billion, covering some 1.3 million workers.

The government has been operating on a reenacted budget since January after the Congress failed to pass the 2019 General Appropriations Act before 2018 ended.

Last week, Duterte warned of negative effects of the prolonged implementation of the reenacted budget on the country’s economy. The Palace, however, assured the public that the government is prepared to cushion the impact of a reenacted budget.

Malacañang also reiterated its call to the Senate and House of Representatives to end their impasse on the budget "with dispatch" so that the spending bill may finally be transmitted for Duterte's review and approval "to assist this government better the lives of our countrymen and help the nation move forward." —NB, GMA News

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