Aklan Gov’t Workers Get Pay Hike

By Venus G. Villanueva

Government workers in Aklan are very happy to get their salary increases effective July of this year.
According to them, the increase will go a long way. It would help much in their daily expenses considering the continuous increases in the prices of basic commodities.
Through Executive Order No. 611 authorizing compensation adjustments to government personnel, government workers are assured of getting a ten percent (10%) increase over their basic monthly salaries as of June 30, 2007. These government workers are covered by the Compensation and Position Classification system under RA No. 6758, as amended effective July 1, 2007.
Government personnel include officials and employees of national government agencies including State Colleges and Universities, government–owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions and local government units.
Military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and all uniformed personnel under the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine Coast Guard, and National Mapping and Resource Information Authority will also be granted a thirty pesos (P30) per day increase in their subsistence allowance and a one hundred twenty pesos (P120) per month increase in their hazard pay effective July 1, 2007.
Secretary Rolando Andaya, Jr., of the Department of Budget and Management, had been directed to implement the pay hike. Some P10.3 billion is already reserved in this year’s budget for the salary increases for national government workers.
Andaya pointed out that this is the first-ever increase in the salary of government workers since 2001.
The subsistence allowance of the military and uniformed personnel, on the other hand, was last adjusted in 1998, while the hazard pay has remained at P120/month since its last initial grant in 1987.
According to Andaya, a bill will be filed in Congress which will "overhaul our compensation system, Salary Standardization Part III, and we are looking at around almost P100 billion till 2010 in the form of salary increases." /MP