Gov’t employees to get P6K ‘OOTD’ allowance in 2018

FILE: Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto (PNA Photo)

The annual clothing allowance of 1.12 million civilian national government employees will increase to P6,000 next year from the current P5,000, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said yesterday.

Described as the “civil servants’ OOTD” or official outfit of the day, the P1, 000 hike for the allowance will require P1.12 billion a year and will raise the total budget for clothing allocation to P6.71 billion, as indicated in the proposed 2018 national budget.

However, the amount is intended for merely civilian employees and does not cover clothing supplied to soldiers, policemen, firemen, and other uniformed personnel.

Recto said the annual clothing allowance of a policeman, fireman and jail guard, whose agencies are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), is about P14,000.

The joint uniform budget of the DILG and for the Army, Navy, Air Force servicemen, under the Department of National Defense (DND), will reach P3.

38 billion next year.

In total, the government will disburse P10.

09 billion for the uniform and clothing overheads of its civilian and uniformed workforces next year.

“‘Yung P10 billion, hindi pa kasama ang clothing allowance ng mga empleyado ng local governments and government corporations [In the P10 billion, the clothing allowance of the employees of local governments and government corporations are not yet included],” Recto said.

Recto added that the budget for the official attire of national government employees is three times higher than the budget of the Department of Tourism (DOT).

“Sa official apparel pa lamang ng national government employees, ang gagastahin ay three times the annual budget of the Department of Tourism (DOT) [In the official apparel of the national government employees alone, the spendings will be three times the annual budget of the Department of Tourism (DOT)],” the senator said.

Under present rules, clothing allowances in an agency are shared and the uniforms bought in bulk. However, in some cases, allowances are given directly to employees.