Combat pay hike ready

From The Standard (Sep 30): Combat pay hike ready

QUALIFIED members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police will receive increases in their combat duty pay and combat incentive pay starting this month after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order No. 3, the Budget Department said Thursday.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said that this increase in allowance is separate from their salary increase as provided by Executive Order No. 201, s. 2016.

From P500 per month, the Combat Duty Pay of the officers and enlisted personnel of the AFP and uniformed personnel of the PNP is increased to P3,000 per month.

“Officers and enlisted personnel of the AFP performing combat duties/activities and uniformed personnel of the PNP engaged in actual police operations as defined in regulations to be issued by the Secretary of National Defense and the National Police Commission, respectively, are entitled to receive Combat Duty Pay,” Duterte’s new Executive Order read.

Diokno said that members of the AFP and the uniformed personnel of the PNP who participate in actual combat against members of various insurgent, terrorist and lawless elements, shall be entitled to an additional Combat Incentive Pay of P300 per day provided that they are valid combat missions.

Diokno on Tuesday earlier ruled out President Rodrigo Duterte’s promise to increase the salaries of the military and uniformed personnel towards the end of the year, citing budget constraints.

“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 Palace press briefing.

In many of his visits to military camps, President Duterte vowed to members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines that their pay will be doubled come yearend.

Diokno stressed that the current 2016 budget does not have appropriations to effect the President’s promise of an incremental increase that can be realigned to increase salaries.

Despite these, however, Diokno promised that the government has earmarked P39.59 billion of the proposed 2017 national budget for the salary increase of soldiers, policemen and other uniformed personnel next year.

http://thestandard.com.ph/news/-main-stories/top-stories/217569/combat-pay-hike-ready.html