Senate approves state workers pay hike

No senator voted against the measure to increase the salary of state workers.

On the day that President Rodrigo Duterte certified as urgent the bill that seeks to increase the salaries of civilian government employees, the Senate passed the measure on third and final reading.

Senate Bill (SB) No. 1219, which will grant civilian government employees a fifth round of salary increases, got 21 affirmative votes and one abstention on Monday. Nobody voted against the bill.

Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, a co-sponsor of the bill, previously explained that SB 1219 is in accordance with President wish that measures supporting pay hike should benefit all professions in government.

“The President wants nothing less than a complete and holistic approach to the salary increase. Meaning, he wants all government employees to receive an increase,” Go said when he expressed his intention to co-sponsor the bill on 10 December.

“During his last State of the Nation Address, the President urged Congress to pass the new Salary Standardization Law to increase the pay of government workers, including public school teachers and public hospital nurses,” said Go.

As the bill was certified urgent, the Senate was allowed to proceed to the third and final reading right after the second reading, bypassing the rule that requires three days to pass between the second and third readings.

On the part of the House of Representatives, House Bill No. 5712 or the proposed Salary Standardization Law (SSL) 5, was approved via voice vote on second reading also on Monday night.

SB 200, which Go filed in his first week as a senator in July, served as one of the bases of SB 1219, which seeks to give the salary increase in four tranches.

“If passed into law, the minimum basic salary of a first-level government employee will be increased from P11,068 to P13,000 (after all tranches),” explained Go, adding that around 1.4 million civilian personnel in the national government will benefit from the law.

“This necessary reward for our civil servants has been a long time coming. It is high time that we recognize their work and accomplishments with the salary increase they deserve,” Go also said.

Aside from from Go, Senators Ralph Recto, Joel Villanueva, Risa Hontiveros and Richard Gordon also co-sponsored the bill.