Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Monday government employees should expect higher pay this August from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) and unprogrammed appropriations.

In a press conference, Pangandaman said she signed the National Budget Circular and the Local Budget Circular outlining the policies under President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order (EO) 64 ordering a four-tranche pay increase beginning this year.

Pangandaman said the national and local budgets will be released in the next days. This will enable agencies to figure out the revised rates.

“We have 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 for computing 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 from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF),” she added.

At an average increase of 4.41 percent for salary grades (SG) 1 to 31, the DBM said the first tranche will lift the pay of government employees to 84.33 percent of the market.

With the rise in SG1 to SG10 of between 4 percent to 5.20 percent, the agency said this would boost the minimum basic salary of SG1 by P530 to P13,530.

The rise will be between 4.50 percent and 5.60 percent for the professional level, SG11 to SG24, which covers the manpower needed by agencies to fulfill their purposes.

Managerial levels, or SGs 25 to 28, will see a pay raise from 4.15 percent to 4.40 percent; executive levels, or SGs 29 to 31, of 2.65 percent to 3.90 percent; and senior leaders, or SGs 31 to 33, of 2.35 percent to 2.40 percent.

Mid-year bonus

In a separate interview, Pangandaman said the first tranche of the government workers’ pay raise will include their mid-year bonus. This year will see the release of this first tranche.

Depending on the government authorities, she said the amount will be released as early as this month.

“The bonuses can be given to the government employees retroactively but it depends on the agency,” she 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,” she added.

Pangandaman said the DBM has published its policies, which she has forwarded to every national government agency stating “the computation of the adjustment.”

President Marcos signed the directive for the pay raise and extra allowance for government employees on 2 August.

The pay increase will apply to all civilian personnel in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches; constitutional commissions and other constitutional offices; government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) not covered by Republic Act 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011 and EO No. 150 (s. 2021); and local government units.”