House may pass pay hike for gov’t execs, workers Wednesday, leaders say

The House of Representatives could pass the proposed measure increasing government workers’ basic salaries and benefits by up to 45 percent on third and final reading by Wednesday if the chamber receives President Benigno Aquino III’s certification of the bill as urgent, House leaders have said.

Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II said the House could expedite the passage of the proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL) of 2015, if aside from the President’s certification, a quorum is also mustered.

“Kung iyan ay ma-approve ng appro (House appropriations committee) by tomorrow morning and we receive the President’s certification tomorrow, and if by a stroke of luck ay magkaroon kami ng quorum tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday), then don’t be surprised if we’re able to pass it on second, and on third and final reading,” he told reporters in a press briefing Tuesday.

Gonzales said House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. already requested that Aquino certify the proposed SSL of 2015, numbered House Bill 6268, as urgent after the House received a copy of the executive branch’s proposal.

House appropriations committee chair Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab earlier said the measure will be passed by his panel after deliberating on it for the first time on Wednesday.

Ungab said he expects the bill’s swift approval considering that 1.3 million government workers stand to benefit from the pay hike.

Gonzales said the President’s certification of the proposed SSL of 2015 as urgent is necessary considering Congress is running on a tight schedule in the remaining seven months of the Aquino administration.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmone Jr., meanwhile, said the chamber needs to utilize its time wisely to ensure the important measures will be passed.

“We also have to husband our time so that first of all, importanteng mga bill yung mga dapat ipasa, and secondly, yung mga kayang ipasa— meaning to say [they can be passed] in one or two meetings and after holding relatively short discussions about them,” he said.

The House will hold sessions until Dec. 18 before adjourning for the holiday season. Lawmakers will go back to work on January 19, 2016 until Feb. 5 before going on recess for the May 2016 elections’ campaign season.

While Congress is bent on fast-tracking the approval of the proposed SSL of 2015, Belmonte clarified that none of the lawmakers comprising stand to benefit from its approval because the 1987 Constitution states that any increase in the compensation of the President, the Vice President, and lawmakers shall take effect until after the expiration of their terms.

Gonzales said the pay hike for workers in the public sector is necessary to prevent brain drain and allow the government to retain its existing manpower.

“Maraming mga positions [for the higher salary grades] katulad ng para sa mga lawyers, direktor, engineer ay bakante dahil walang takers para sa existing na salary dahil even after the implementation of the earlier SSL, napag-iiwanan pa rin ang gobyerno ng private sector,” he said.

Under HB 6268, the mimimum salary (Salary Grade 1) for government employees would be raised from P9,000 to P11,068 in the next four years.

Meanwhile, the monthly pay of the next President, who enjoys Salary Grade 33, will increase from the current P120,000 to P399,733 when the final tranche of the pay hike has been implemented.

Asked if the passage of the new round of SSL for government workers is the executive’s way of compensating for Aquino’s opposition to lowering income tax rates, Belmonte said it is “not necessarily” the case because only employees employed by the state stand to benefit from it.

In a separate statement, ACT-Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio slammed HB 6268 as a measure favoring top government employees and biased against those in low- and middle-level positions.

Tinio noted that the measure only provides for a pay hike rate of anywhere between 11 percent to 22 percent for public school teachers, nurses, and rank-and-file employees over the next four years. On the other hand, the pay increases for those in executive positions starting from SG 25 would hover at around 76.96 percent to 233.12% for SG 33.

It is true that there will be a mid-year bonus equivalent to a month’s salary and a Performance-Based Bonus equivalent to the salary for one up to two months.  Nevertheless, apart from our opposition to the general framework of PBB, it is clear that when it comes to basic pay, government employees in the lowest up to the middle-level positions are disadvantaged while those occupying higher positions are greatly favored under the proposed SSL 2015 of President Aquino,” Tinio said. -NB, GMA News