Drilon hails signing of EO on first tranche of gov't workers pay hike

Senate President and re-electionist senatorial candidate Frank Drilon today said that the task of formulating and legislating a four-year salary hike for government employees rests with the incoming 17th Congress.

Drilon issued the statement as he lauded President Aquino's signing of an Executive Order (EO) that increases the salary and benefits of approximately 1.3 million government employees.

"I am glad that President has finally signed the EO which will start the long-awaited pay hike for our dedicated and hard-working government employees," Drilon said.

"However, given that the president's EO will only cover the salary hike for this year alone, the challenge to implement the full four-year salary hike as envisioned remains with lawmakers," Drilon said, noting that a new version of the SSL needs to be enacted into law in the next 17th Congress.

"I will personally see to it that our public workers will get their full pay hike by pushing for the SSL IV in the 17th Congress. It will be the first bill that I will myself file, if the people will once more trust me to be part of the Senate," Drilon said.

Drilon is the author of the SSL IV in the 16th Congress. The bill was stalled in the bicameral conference committee of both houses of Congress.

According to the Senate leader, the president's EO will put into effect the monthly salary increases of state workers for the year 2016 as proposed under the Salary Standardization Law IV.

Drilon explained that the pay hike will be funded "through a P58 billion allocation that was appropriated under the 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA) signed by President Aquino last year."

The four-time Senate President said if it were not due to President Aquino's Daang Matuwid leadership, it would have been difficult to implement an increase in the government's pay scale.

"The economy is in the right course and we take advantage of the favorable condition to raise the pay scheme in the government and align it with the compensation received by employees from the private sector," Drilon concluded.