by Joann Villanueva/PNA
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has recommended to Malacañang the issuance of an executive order (EO) to implement the fourth tranche of salary hike for state workers.
This, as Congress has yet to submit to the Palace the enrolled copy of the PHP3.757-trillion 2019 national budget, amid allegations that members of the House of Representatives made some changes on the Bicameral Conference Committee-approved national budget.
Since the government is operating on a reenacted budget to date, DBM officer in charge and Undersecretary Janet Abuel said they cannot implement the fourth tranche of the wage increase scheduled for this year.
Thus, she cited the need for “some additional recommendations for funding.”
“But definitely we would like to allay the fears of government employees that the reenactment would prevent the grant but that would require an Executive Order to be issued by the President, which the DBM has already recommended,” she said in a press briefing Wednesday.
Amid the budget impasse, Abuel said economic officials “are hoping for the enactment of the 2019 GAA.”
DBM officials have said that the last tranche of pay hike under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) of 2015 will require about PHP45 to PHP50 billion.
Compensation adjustments for employees of national government agencies will be sourced from the national budget while for those belonging to government-owned and controlled corporations, the budget has to come from their respective corporate funds.
