Pay hike for cops and soldiers, already in the hands of Congress.
It can be recalled that this had been one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s most notable campaign promises. When he won, the country’s cops and soldiers excitedly waited for the increase but none came in the next months, mostly because the budget for this year had already been determined by the previous administration.
But the uniformed personnel have not lost hope that one day within the president’s term, they would finally receive the 100% salary increase he promised they would receive. Some news outlets reported low morale among the uniformed men due to the failed campaign promise but an update recently released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has gotten their hopes up again.
According to the DBM, the Office of the President has concurred with a draft Congress Joint Resolution pertaining to the doubled salaries of entry-level cops and soldiers starting next year, 2018.
“If signed by both houses of Congress, the resolution will double the base pay of a police officer (PO) 1 in the Philippine National Police, 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.”
Currently, a PO1 (and equivalent ranks) receives Php14,834 as base pay. If the pay hike is approved by the Congress, this would increase to Php29,668.
But the 100% increase does not cover all ranks. Some ranks will not have that high an increase, mostly because their salaries are already in much higher brackets.
According to the DBM, the average pay increase across all ranks will be 58.7%.
DBM allocated Php63.4 billion of the budget to fund this increase, with the money coming from miscellaneous personnel benefits fund plus “any available allotment in the respective budgets of the agencies concerned.”
The much-awaited pay hike for cops and soldiers is now in Congress’ hands and will take effect on January 1, 2018, once the budget is approved.