Salary of gov't workers up but the private sector?

 EDITORIAL

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte recently signed a new law which seeks to give civilian government employees, including nurses and teachers in the public sector, their fifth round of salary increases.

Senate Bill No. 1219, also referred to as the Salary Standardization Law 5, was one of priority bills of Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, in addition to the Malasakit Center Act of 2019 and a bill postponing barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, both of which have also been passed into law.

Good for government workers, those in the private sector gripe. Entrepreneurs and others in the business sector whose businesses are not that profitable say they cannot also increase salaries of their workers considering rising cost of materials and services.

Some taxpayers are saying they don’t mind increase in government salaries but wouldn’t like their taxes go to waste by corruption and ineptitude of those in government.

Even if this is the case, Go said SB 1219 satisfies the President's wish to ensure a complete and holistic approach to salary increase for government employees.

“The President wants nothing less than a complete and holistic approach to the salary increase. Meaning, he wants all government employees to receive an increase,” Go said. The Senator filed in his first week of duty as a Senator SB 200 which served as one of the bases of SB 1219.

With the signing of the measure, “the minimum basic salary of a first-level (Salary Grade 1) government employee will now be increased from P11,068 to P13,000 (after all tranches, in 2023) due to the SSL 5,” Go explained.

Under the newly signed law, the increase in the salaries will be divided into four tranches, starting 2020 until 2023. A total of P34 billion was allocated in the 2020 national budget for the salary increases for the current year.

He added that “around 1.4 million civilian personnel in the national government” are set to benefit from the law.

Duterte and Go have been staunch supporters of salary increase for government workers, with the President even urging the Congress to pass the new SSL during his State of the Nation Address in 2019.

The President then certified the bill as urgent in December last year, allowing the Senate to proceed to the third and final reading of the bill right after the second reading, bypassing the rule that requires three days to pass between the second and third readings.

“In recognition of their invaluable contributions, our civil servants, the people who dedicate their everyday lives to the service of the Filipino people, must be given an opportunity to pursue a career in the service that would allow them to enjoy competitive wages, enough to address their personal needs and that of their families,” Go said in his previous statements.

Go expressed his gratitude to his colleagues in the Senate and the Lower House of Congress like Senate President Tito Sotto III, Senate Majority Leader Migz Zubiri, House Speaker Alan Cayetano and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez for their support and their efforts in making sure that the measure was passed on time.