Early Christmas for gov't employees

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Monday announced that government employees may expect an increase in their wages this August through the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) and unprogrammed appropriations.

DBM Secretay Amenah Pangandaman said that she has signed the National Budget Circular and Local Budget Circular outlining the policies on President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order (EO) 64 which orders a four-tranche pay increase starting this year.

She added that the signed national and local budgets will be released in the next days which will enable agencies under the pay raise to figure the revised rates.

"We have already signed the National Budget Circular and the Local Budget Circular. We will just publish them, and then they can be implemented. These circulars provide the guidelines on how to compute the adjustments in salaries," Pangandaman said.

"They can make the adjustments right away. They can use their existing Personnel Services (PS) budget that they currently have. Whatever is lacking, we will cover that from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF)," she added.

In a separate interview, Pangandaman said first tranche of government workers' pay raise will include their mid-year bonus and the release of the first tranche will be this year and may be as early as August.

"The bonuses can be given to the government employees retroactively but it depends on the agency," Pangandaman said. “It’s now up to the departments, agencies, and everyone involved to implement the adjustments so that the release of these adjustments can be expedited.”