House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. assured government civilian and military personnel on Saturday that their salary hike will push through even if next year’s budget may be reenacted for at least two weeks to a month.
“The fate of the 2019 national budget will have no impact on the scheduled round of pay hikes next year for government personnel, civilian and military,” Andaya said in a statement.
“It will go on as programmed, even in the event of a slight delay in the signing into law of the 2019 budget,” he said.
The salary hike, Andaya said, “will be included in the first paycheck of the year which will be released on Jan. 15.”
“The claim that the programmed salary hike is dependent on the budget is fake news,” the solon said, adding that there are separate laws covering the salary hikes of civilian and military government employees regardless of the passage of the General Appropriations Act.
The government has allotted P121.7 billion in next year’s proposed national budget for the salary increases of state civilian and military personnel.
Andaya said P51.7 billion of the P121.7 billion allotment is for the fourth and final tranche of the Salary Standardization Law IV covering civilian employees.
The remaining P70 billion, will be “for second installment of the law raising the base pay of soldiers, policemen, jail and fire officers, and coast guards.”
Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri warned the proposed P3.757-trillion budget for 2019 may not be approved before Congress goes on Christmas break.
Because of this, Zubiri said, there will be a reenacted budget for two weeks to a month. He said the earliest that senators could begin deliberations would be on Nov. 28.
But even if the Senate passes the budget on third and final reading by Dec. 12, Zubiri said, the bicameral conference committee would still have to be convened to reconcile disagreeing provisions of the House and Senate versions.
Malacañang, however, said it remained optimistic the proposed 2019 national budget will be passed on time despite delays in the House of Representatives.
“The House knows that this is the budget proposal of the Palace. And so, they will have to do their job. If there are questions on the budget, they will raise them and we will respond to them,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.