PHILIPPINE National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa vowed Monday to raise the salaries of police retirees after some of them complained about being left out of a planned pay hike next year, adding he would quadruple this if he became president.
Dela Rosa, set to retire in January 2018, said police officers 1 were given priority in the salary increase as they were earning less than senior cops.
But Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP chief, scoffed at Dela Rosa’s vow in his social media account, saying that was just “good sound bite…the hardest part is doing the math.”
According to Lacson, the Senate has requested both the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to submit actual numbers to validate the claim of the Department of Budget and Management that at least P5 trillion was needed to fund the increase.
Responding to one of his followers who clarified if he really meant trillion, Lacson replied: “Yes, T as in trillion as initial seed money.”
“Other agencies say 6T or 9T even. That’s why we need to hear from the finance centers of the uniformed services and the Land Bank of the Philippines to get official records of actual payouts,” the senator said.
Lacson was referring to the statements made by Dela Rosa during the PNP flag ceremony, wherein the latter denied that he took for granted the welfare of his retired colleagues.
The Duterte administration in September came up with a draft Congress Joint Resolution authorizing compensation adjustment for military and uniformed personnel.
If signed by both houses of Congress, a Police Officer 1 will enjoy a 100 percent increase in monthly base pay from the current P14,834 to P29,668.
It will also double the pay of a Private in the Department of National Defense and equivalent ranks in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Public Safety College, Philippine Coast Guard, and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority.
Overall, the adjustments will result in a 58.7 percent average increase in base pay for all military and uniformed personnel ranks effective Jan. 1, 2018.
Dela Rosa said they were still crafting a proposal to include the pensions of retired policemen in the adjustment.
“I’ll be retiring next year so I cannot set aside the welfare of retirees. We are still looking for the best option where we could all benefit from the salary increase,” Dela Rosa said.
“At the same time, the Department of Budget and Management is finding it difficult to accommodate everyone. We have not yet submitted a position paper. We only prioritized active policemen because they are the ones who are still in active service,” he added.