The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) disclosed that close to two million government workers are expected to benefit from the unprogrammed appropriations that will be funded by the idle and unused funds of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), with a total of 67.6 billion pesos to be utilized to cover salary increases and benefits of the country's civil servants.

In a list enumerating the items that will be covered by 2024 unprogrammed appropriations, the DBM revealed that two priority programs that would receive funding are personnel benefits and Salary Standardization Law (SSL) VI.

At least P40 billion will be allocated for the roll out of salary increases of 1,820,610 government employees.

The DBM earlier announced that the first part of the four-tranche salary increase for national government employees will commence this year, retroactively from January 2024. This will be followed by yearly salary adjustment starting January 2025 until January 2027.

Under the first tranche, the average rate of salary increases for all salary grade levels -- SG 1 to SG 31 -- will be 4.41 percent. The proposed rate of increase under SSL VI will be slightly higher than SSL V.

A total of P27.6 billon, on the other hand, will be used to cover the payment of government personnel benefits.

“The amount appropriated herein shall be used to cover the requirements for the payment of personnel benefits, such as but not limited to, compensation adjustments, staffing modifications, and the grant of Performance-Based Bonus for personnel of National Government Agencies,” said the DBM in a statement.

Among the GOCCs with excess funds that will be tapped for unprogrammed appropriations are the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation with P117 billion and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) with P89.9 billion.