(Eagle News) — Budget Secretary Ben Diokno on Friday announced his office’s proposal for a base pay hike for the military, police and other uniformed personnel has been approved by the Office of the President.
In a statement, Diokno said the OP approval was made on Sept. 25, with the draft now endorsed to Congress.
“We need the approval of both houses of Congress to implement this because Congress has the power of the purse,” he said.
He said under the proposal, a Police Officer 1 and those with equivalent rank in the Department of National Defense, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Philippine Public Safety College, the Philippine Coast Guard, and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority would have a P29,668 monthly base pay, a 100 percent increase from the original one.
He said the salary adjustments of all MUP ranks would lead to a 58.7 percent average increase effective January 2018.
Increase in allowances, bonuses, net take-home pay
According to the Budget secretary, the increase in the base pay will also lead to “increases in other allowances and bonuses that are computed as a percentage of Base Pay such as Longevity Pay (or Foggy Pay), Mid-Year Bonus, Year-End Bonus.”
He said this means that the “grant of provisional and officers’ allowances,” which was an “interim measure pending the modification of the base pay schedule,” would be “effectively discontinued, under the proposal.
According to Diokno, net take-home pay will also be “much higher than the previous arrangement.”
He said this was because “Longevity Pay,” in particular, was “tax-exempt,” while “the interim allowances (Provisional and Officers’ Allowances) are subject to income tax.”
“Tax-exempt collateral allowances (e.g. Flying Pay, Sea Duty Pay, Instructor’s Duty Pay. etc..) are expected to increase as well (under the proposal),” he said.
He also noted that “the passage of the first package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform program would further increase the net take-home pay,” if the proposal would be implemented.
Diokno said the P63.4 billion additional cost to the government for the implementation of the base pay hike would be “funded from the Miscellaneous Personnel benefits Fund, and from any available allotment in the respective budgets of the agencies concerned.”
