DBM: Pay hike for cops may take more than 5 years

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Police personnel and soldiers may first receive increases in hazard pay and allowances, instead of immediately getting double their salary, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said yesterday.

Interviewed over Radyo Inquirer, Diokno also said doubling their pay would not happen in just one instance and may be done over a period five years.

Earlier, the President promised to double the salary of personnel of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines as part of his efforts to boost their morale.

On Thursday, Diokno said the proposed 2017 budget did not contain allocations for the President’s promised increase.

But he also said they were set to receive a pay hike as part of the second tranche of the Salary Standardization Law.

Yesterday, Diokno said the police may also get more hazard pay and allowances.

“Most likely, we would first adjust the hazard pay because their lives are really on the line, as well as the allowances, so that there would be no distortion. We would study that,” he said.

He also noted that if the monthly salaries of police personnel is raised to P50,000 as earlier proposed, it would entail a lot of adjustments in the salaries of other personnel, in order to avoid wage distortion.

In the same interview, Diokno explained the Budge Department’s decision to scrap the Bottom up Budgeting (BUB) program of the Aquino administration, where grassroots communities are asked to identify specific projects they need and get funds from the national government.

He said the BUB, which had an allocation of more than P100 billion, was a political tool of the Liberal Party.

Local government units already receive a lot of money from the internal revenue allotment, which is automatically released to them, he said. IRA allocations amount to some P500 billion, he said.