Aguirre loses bid to use express lane fees for BI overtime pay

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno has rejected the proposal to use airport express lane fees for the overtime pay of employees from the Bureau of Immigration.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II made the proposal during the Cabinet meeting on Monday evening.

The Justice Chief made the proposal to prevent further exodus of BI personnel.

“He [Diokno] rejected the proposal saying it would be illegal and violative of Republic Act 10924 or the General Appropriations Act of 2017,” Aguirre said, adding there really is a need for Congress to pass a bill to address the problem on overtime pay of the immigration personnel.

Early this year, President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the use of express lane charges collected by the BI for payment of salaries of casual and contractual personnel, confidential agents and job order employees, augmentation of salaries and the health insurance premium of personnel who render services beyond office hours.

Records showed that BI personnel were paid P784 million in overtime pay last year, which was five times bigger than their basic salaries.

Diokno questioned the overtime compensation of BI officers, saying that casual personnel like them could only be paid with a maximum of 50 percent of their monthly salary for overtime pay per month.

Under R.A. 10924, the said funds collected from use of express lanes will now go to the national treasury.

Prior to this fiscal reform, BI officers who earn P14,000 in monthly salary were getting as much as P48,000 a month in overtime pay.

The DBM has created 887 new plantilla items for the bureau and also allotted PHP224.835 million to pay for the extra work rendered by the immigration officers, but Aguirre stressed that such amount would only allow a maximum of PHP5,000 in overtime pay of each immigration personnel.

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