Drilon urges Duterte: Give allowance hike to civilian workers

Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

After increasing the combat duty and incentive pay for soldiers and policemen, President Rodrigo Duterte should also grant an additional P3,000 to about 1.3 million civilian employees, Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin Drilon said on Tuesday.

“I urge the President to extend his generosity that he has showered our uniformed men and women to our equally deserving and dedicated civilian personnel,” Drilon said in a statement.

READ: Duterte gives soldiers, cops huge pay hike

“It is only timely and proper that we provide relief to civilian employees, whose purchasing power has eroded through the years, by way of an additional allowance of P3,000 per month,” he said.

Drilon said the additional benefit for civilian workers should be given on top of the mandatory the P2,500 Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA) currently received by all government employees.

The estimated P15.73-billion budget that would be needed to fund the additional allowance from September to December this year, he said, could be sourced from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefit Fund (MPBF).

“Annually, it will only cost additional P47 billion in government coffers, which can be lodged under the MPBF or in the agencies’ respective budgets,” said Drilon, who previously headed the Senate committee on finance.

If the President would grant this proposal, he said, Congress can include the amounts necessary for the grant of additional allowances to both the uniformed and civilian employees in the 2017 national budget.

Drilon noted that under Executive Order No. 3, the combat duty pay of the officers and enlisted personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and uniformed personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) was fixed at P3,000 per month from the previous rate of P500 per month for the enlisted personnel of the AFP and the P340 per month for the uniformed policemen.

READ: 3K dagdag na combat at incentive pay, matatanggap na ng mga sundalo

AFP members and the uniformed personnel of the PNP who figure directly in actual combat against members of various insurgent, terrorist and lawless elements, are now also be entitled to additional Combat Incentive Pay of P300 per day.

Drilon said the budget for these increases amount to about P4.06 billion from September to December this year and P12.2 billion for 2017.

While he agreed that there was an urgent need to increase the said benefits to improve the living conditions of the men in uniform, the senator said, “such is also true with the civilian employees, who are having a hard time to cope with the rising cost of living.” RAM/rga