Drilon: Other gov’t professionals should also get pay hike

Sen. Franklin Drilon INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

While he welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to increase teachers’ salary, Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said on Wednesday that the order should cover all government positions, including nurses and other professionals to prevent discrepancies.

Drilon said the government should review its current salary structure following the increase in the basic salary of the military and non-uniformed personnel (MUP).

He explained that the doubling of the salaries for the armed forces and the police, which he supported, would result in serious discrepancies in the current salary scheme in the government.

“It is important that a review of the compensation package for the civilian personnel is undertaken in order to avoid wage distortion and inequality and make the salary of government professionals at par with their counterparts in the military and the police,” Drilon said in a statement.

“Today a teacher 1 receives P21,000 while a policeman receives P40,000. Shouldn’t the teacher, shouldn’t the health worker, shouldn’t the entry-level lawyer in the Department of Justice be the same with everybody?” Drilon said.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Tuesday said that Duterte was eyeing to double the entry salary of teachers and already asked the Department of Finance to find ways to increase their pay through the second tax reform package.

READ: Duterte promises to double pay of public school teachers

Drilon called on the House of Representatives to adopt Senate Resolution No. 575, which aims to “cure salary distortion and inequity.”

The resolution asks the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to recompute and readjust the base pay of the government’s civilian personnel below and above salary grade 11 to ensure that the compensation of civilian personnel are proportional to that of their military and uniformed personnel counterparts.

The minority leader said that a review of the current pay structure was “necessary to avoid the demoralization among civilian employees.”

“The resolution would address the possible wage distortion by adjusting the Compensation and Position Classification System and Base Pay Schedule of civilian personnel,” Drilon said.

The resolution will also eliminate overlaps among salary grade allocations of government personnel taking into consideration differences in duties, responsibilities, length of service, and other logical bases of differentiation of the positions, Drilon noted.

The new base pay rates for the civilian personnel shall take effect six months after the increase in the base pay of MUP takes effect, according to the resolution. /jpv