Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday that doubling
the salaries of soldiers and policemen as promised by President Rodrigo Duterte
will not happen this year.
”I can almost say that that’s not possible by the end of the
year, simply because there’s nothing there in the budget for that,” Diokno said
in a press briefing in Malacañang.
The Duterte administration is operating under the 2016
national budget prepared by the administration of former president Benigno
Aquino III.
”We cannot spend something which is not authorized by
Congress,” he explained.
Diokno however said the military and police uniformed
personnel, like other public servants, received a pay hike and other benefits
under the Salary Standardization program implemented this year through
Executive Order No. 201 signed by Aquino last February.
”The first tranche was given in 2016. There will be a second
tranche in 2017, third in 2018, and the fourth. The other military and the
uniformed personnel are included in those tranches,” he said.
The budget official clarified that doubled salaries promised
by President Duterte to the soldiers and policemen cover basic pay and
allowances, including combat pay.
”It’s a combination of allowance and increase in pay. They
are also entitled to rice allowance at 20 kilos per month,” he said.
Diokno said he has already explained to President Duterte
the peculiarity of granting special salary increase for members of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
”In the AFP, the pension of the armed forces, meaning the
army, the navy, naka-index sa (are indexed in the) current salary ng (of the)
military. Once you increase the pay of the military, automatically the pension
of the retirees will also increase,” he explained.
Diokno called it “the elephant in the room” that nobody
wanted to touch, even during the past three administrations of former
presidents Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Aquino.
”It is very sensitive. So, until we have addressed that
problem, it is difficult to adjust the pay of the military,” he said.
In the last development budget coordinating committee
meeting at the House of Representatives, Diokno said a PHP39.5 billion budget
has been allotted for the salary increase of police, military and other
uniformed personnel for 2017.
He said the amount included in the proposed PHP3.35 trillion
national budget for next year was set aside to fulfill President Duterte’s
promise to increase the budget of the soldiers, policemen and uniformed
personnel.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=926600
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