PDuterte signs law granting 4th Tranche of salary increase for Civilian Gov't Employees

President Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) No. 76 granting the 4th Tranche of salary increase for Government Employees.

It can be remembered that Section 11 of EO 201 declared that the 4th tranche of salary increase for civilian government employees shall be implemented in 2019. Section 15 of EO 201 likewise provided for the funding sources of this salary increase. However, pending the passage of a law for the 2019 budget (GAA 2019) that is still being debated upon by Congress, a reenacted budget was implemented consistent with the constitutional provisions. This EO 76 amended Section 15 of the EO 201, s. 2016.

Section 11 (of EO 201) Implementation Schedule. The modified Salary Schedule and additional benefits authorized herein shall be implemented in National Government Agencies as follows, subject to appropriations by Congress:
d. By January 1, 2019, the fourth tranche salary schedule for civilian personnel and the fourth tranche Provisional Allowance, Officers’ Allowance and Hazard Pay for MUP, the Mid-Year Bonus and full amount of the enhanced PBB.
Section 15 (of EO 201) Funding Source. The funding sources for the amounts necessary to implement this Executive Order shall be as follows:
a) For national government agencies funded in the GAA, the amount needed for the compensation adjustment in FY 2016 shall be charged against the appropriations provided in the FY 2016 GAA.
The funding requirements for the compensation adjustment in FYs 2017, 2018 and 2019 will be included in the proposed annual National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress for its approval. The DBM, following the compensation adjustment strategy embodied in Section 1 hereof, and consistent with its authority under Section 7 of RA No. 6758, as amended, shall then be authorized to implement or adjust the compensation corresponding to the appropriations provided in the GAA.

No salary increase for MUPs yet

However, for MUPs (Military, PNP, other uniformed services), let us be reminded that Section 7 of EO 201 (provisional allowance and officers allowance of MUPs) was amended by Joint Resolution No. 1, s. 2018 (JR no. 1) as it provided a new set of salary increase. (Kindly refer to JR no. 1)

As was clearly provided in Paragraph VIII (Repeal) of JR no. 1, wherein it repealed the provisions on EO 201 about the provisional and officers allowance.

Also in JR no. 1, Paragraph VI (Funding Source) clearly provided that the 2019 (2nd) tranche of salary increase for MUPs shall be sourced from the GAA.

As such, I am pretty sure that ONLY the other government employees will receive their salary increase under this E.O.

Hopefully, for the MUPs, another E.O will be signed to also approve our salary increase as provided by J.R. No. 1, s. 2018.

Merely a title

Some are thinking that this law covers the MUPs as the word “MILITARY AND UNIFORMED PERSONNEL” appeared in the title of EO 76. Even major news outfits reported that it included the MUPs.

The EO (76) does not give additional benefits for military and other uniformed personnel (MUPs). Amending the funding source under EO 201 does not affect the funding source provided in JR no. 1.

In fact, it does not cover any salary increase for them. It only covers the civilian government employees. The reason why the “MUP” was mentioned in the title of EO 76 is simply that it is an amendatory law. It amended EO 201 which has a full title of EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 201 (S. 2016), ENTITLED “MODIFYING THE SALARY SCHEDULE FOR CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL AND AUTHORIZING THE GRANT OF ADDITIONAL BENEFITS FOR BOTH CIVILIAN AND MILITARY AND UNIFORMED PERSONNEL”.

EO 76 simply added the term “AMENDING” before the full title of EO 201, emphasizing that it was mere amending it.

It is merely a title and will not hold as a basis to increase the salary of the MUPs. Likewise, if we would read the texts of EO 76, it explicitly stated that it is for the civilian government employees.

Presidential Spokesperson announcement

Regarding that, they might have simply forgotten or missed the fact that there is no more 4th tranche of salary increase for military and other uniformed personnel (MUP) as the provision for salary increase under E.O. 201, s. 2016 was repealed by Joint Resolution No. 1, s. 2018, signed by PDuterte himself, and it was already explained above.

Again, J.R. no. 1 has only 2 tranches, 2018 (which gave the PO1’s a 100% salary increase) and 2019 which was supposed to have been implemented starting last Jan 2019.

End note

I am sure the people who drafted the law has the intention of including the MUPs. And for such, we should be grateful. However, I am simply pointing out a flaw as we all know how technical the people in the implementation level could become. To correct this, another EO to bypass the Paragraph VI (Funding Source) of Joint Resolution No. 1, s. 2018.

If you want to know if you are included in the salary increase for MUPs under JR no. 1, please click this link.

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