President Duterte may have promised salary increases for soldiers and policemen but there’s no money for raises until 2018, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
Lacson explained on Thursday that the 2017 national budget has already been drafted without any provision for salary increases for the military and the police.
“That’s not possible anymore because the 2017 budget is about to be submitted. I don’t see how the salary increases for police and military officers can still be incorporated,” Lacson told reporters.
“I think for 2018, [the President will] make sure [raises are provided for]. But for 2017, it’s highly improbable, if not impossible,” said Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief.
No allocation
Congress is expected to start considering the proposed 2017 national budget next month.
President Duterte told soldiers and policemen last month that they would be getting an incremental pay hike starting this month.
But Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno told the Senate on Wednesday that there was no allocation for the salary increases under the national budget.
“We cannot promise this August because, as you know, there is nothing in the budget for that. I don’t want to commit a violation of the DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) rule. You cannot spend on something that is not authorized by Congress,” Diokno told the committee on civil service, government reorganization and professional regulation in a briefing.
Unconstitutional
Diokno was referring to the Aquino administration’s DAP program, an economic stimulus put together from unspent agency funds for other initiatives not approved under the national budget.
The Supreme Court struck down the DAP as unconstitutional in 2014.
Diokno told the committee chair, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, that the administration was “looking at a three-year trajectory” for the pay hikes.
He said the government was “trying to supplement” the income of soldiers and policemen in other ways, including the provision of a monthly rice allowance.
Trillanes said Diokno should tell the President not to make rash promises.