Press Release
March 29, 2007

PRESIDENT GMA ASKED TO EXPLAIN
WHY SHE DISCARDED HER OWN BILL ON PAY HIKE

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should explain why she issued an executive order granting a 10 percent salary hike for government employees despite the fact that this is embodied in a bill already approved by Congress on the basis of the recommendation of the Palace.

Pimentel said that while it may look impolite for anyone to question the pay increase through executive fiat, the issue of the legal justification for such presidential move could not be avoided.

He said the fact that the President submitted to Congress an administration bill on the salary hike is an explicit recognition that only Congress is empowered to appropriate funds for any program, project or activity that is initiated by the executive branch.

Records show that the Senate and House of Representatives had approved last January the 10 percent salary hike bill and allocating P10.3 billion for the purpose.

Its plain one up-womanship. She could not wait for Congress to do it. I doubt its legality. But it would be most politically incorrect to denounce it, Pimentel said.

Lets just say that shes gone to the level of a two-bit politician who wants to put one over others by scraping the bottom of the political barrel to gain political advantage.

Pimentel noted that while the President signed Executive Order 611 mandating the 10-percent across-the-board salary upgrading about two months before the May 14 elections, the same will not take effect until July 1 this year.

Because of the timing and circumstance under which the executive order was signed by the President, the minority leader said one cannot help but suspect that there was a political motive behind the presidential move.

Pimentel recalled that last year, the President also jumped the gun on Congress by issuing an executive order granting a P1,000 monthly allowance to civil servants despite the fact that there was a pending bill with Congress for a hike in their compensation.

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