Pay hike for cops, soldiers gets final House nod

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte flashes his signature pose in a photo opportunity with the officials and personnel from the Light Reaction Regiment, Special Operation Command, First Scout Ranger Regiment, and Special Forces Regiment Airborne during his visit at Fort Magsaysay in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija on November 22, 2017. ACE MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — The House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and final reading a joint resolution aimed at raising the salaries of police and soldiers by next year.

Voting 167-4, members of the lower chamber passed Joint Resolution No. 18 authorizing the compensation adjustment for military and uniformed personnel (MUP).

The measure specifically raises the monthly Base Pay of a Police Officer (PO) I in the Philippine National Police (PNP) or a Private in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, 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 from PHP14,834 to PHP29,668, representing a 100 percent increase in the Base Pay effective January 1, 2018.

For the other ranks, the increase in Base Pay will be calibrated resulting in an average increase of 58.70 percent for all ranks.

Based on estimates by the Department of Budget and Management, the increase in the base pay of soldiers, police, firefighters and jail guards will entail an additional cost of PHP63.4 billion.

The resolution employs two tranches of implementation of the modified base pay starting 2018 and 2019.

The indexation of the pension of retired MUP with base pay of those in the active service shall be suspended with respect to the base pay increase authorized in the joint resolution.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, appropriations committee chair, said the suspension indexation will last up to Jan. 1, 2019, “or until a new pension reform law is passed, whichever comes earlier.”

“This temporary suspension, for a period of about one year, of the application of pension indexation of retired military and uniformed personnel, is only in view of its huge financial implication,” Nograles explained.

The resolution also states that the hazard pay of all military and uniformed personnel shall be fixed at PHP540 per month.

The increase in base pay for 2018 shall be sourced from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund and other available funds while the funding requirements for the succeeding years shall be included in the annual General Appropriations Act.

Nograles said the proposed modified base pay will benefit around 381,381 military and uniformed personnel nationwide. (PNA)