HOUSE majority floor leader Neptali Gonzales II said Sunday only a funding assurance from Malacañang could break the impasse over Salary Standardization Law 4 should senators insist on including retired military and police officers in the proposed salary increase for government personnel.
He said the salary adjustment for workers in the government service was being stymied because of the senators’ insistence on covering military and police retirees in SSL 4.
But he said President Benigno Aquino III had nothing to do with the senators’ demand, and neither was there an endorsement from the Budget Department.
“The inclusion is not included in the original proposal… and the President and the DBM have not endorsed it,” Gonzales said.
He added that the senators’ proposal did not have budgetary support. He said only P57.9 billion was included for the implementation of the first tranche of the P226-billion four-year SSL 4 under this year’s budget.
But Gonzales assured government employees that Congress would do its best to pass SSL 4.
“Definitely, we will work and find a solution to break the impasse. But right now we cannot entertain additional items because there is no guaranteed available funding in a form of certification from DBM,” Gonzales said.
“The objective of the wage increase through SSL 4 is to make state workers get salaries closer to the prevailing rates enjoyed by workers in the private sector.”
Congress and the Senate failed to pass SSL 4 before the Christmas break after the Senate moved to reconsider the approval of their own version to include retired soldiers and police officers.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the inclusion of military and police retirees in SSL 4 in the salary adjustment plan would involve a lot of money.
The salary adjustment would cost taxpayers P226 billion over four years, broken down into P57.906 billion in 2016, P54.393 billion in 2017, P65.976 billion in 2018 and P47.544 billion in 2019.
Under SSL 4, a registered nurse receiving P24,887 per month under salary grade 15 would be entitled to P26,192 a month in 2016.
In the final year of the implementation, a nurse’s monthly salary would go up to P30,531.