Best 'Valentines gift' for gov't employees is still a P3,000 salary increase

From the Office of Anakpawis Representative Crispin B. Beltran

Reference: Rep. Crispin Beltran (+63)927.871.1080

Lisa C. Ito, Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006

Tel. # (+632) 931-6615 Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com

URL: http://www.geocities.com/ap_news
*
*NEWS RELEASE *

February 13, 2006



*Best 'Valentines gift' for gov't employees is still a P3,000
across-the-board salary increase*



Following the Lower House's passage of a P13.1 supplementary budget for
government workers' allowance, Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltan urged the Lower
House to prioritize the passage of House Bill (HB) No. 5013, which will
legislate a P3,000 monthly salary increase for workers in the public sector.




"The Palace-proposed P1,000 monthly allowance is still not an alternative or
replacement for a P3,000 across-the-board legislated wage hike for
government employees," Rep. Beltran said. Beltran stressed that "the P1,000
allowance was not enough to even make a significant dent in the lives of
government employees". "While this allowance will indeed add more loose
change to the empty pockets of our government employees, it stills fall
short of their basic demands for a substantial salary increase," he said.



"This monthly additional allowance of P1,000 each, if divided by 22 working
days, will translate to less than $1 or an additional P45.50 per day for
each government worker. The minimum gross pay of a Salary Grade 1 employee
is only P5,082 pesos a month, while the average government employee (such
as public school teachers and Salary Grade 10 personnel) earns only around
P9,932 a month. An extra P45.50 is insignificant, especially if you consider
the actual cost of living for a Filipino family of six, which is now around
P16,000 per month (or a national average of P534.80 a day) to P19,505 per
month (or P650.17 per day) in the National Capital Region, according to a
2006 study by the Institute of Political Economy," he said.

"We are doing all we can to raise the current take-home pay of our
government employees to the P19,505 needed monthly for a Filipino family's
basic needs. The significant salary hike will do much to raise government
workers' purchasing power and enable them to meet the current costs of
living that have risen along with the Reformed Value Added Tax and
unstoppable oil price hikes," Beltran said.

Beltran stressed that government workers are actively lobbying for the HB
5013's immediate passage,

citing a copy of a resolution from the National Federation of Employees
Associations of the Department of Agriculture (NAFEDA), which represents
nearly 30,000 rank-and-file employees from the DA. The NAFEDA recently
concluded its last Congress with Resolution No. 01 series of 2006,
entitled "*A Resolution of Appeal to her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
and the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations Hon. Rolando R. Andaya
Jr., to facilitate the immediate grant of the P3,000.00 Across-the-board
salary increase for government workers by Certifying House Bill No. 1064 as
a Priority Bill*".

"Efforts to legislate a wage increase of P3,000 has been gathering dust in
the Lower House for half a decade already since 1999. The first P3,000
across-the-board salary hike bill was filed in the 11th Congress, but was
summarily killed. A similar bill was filed during the 12th Congress, but
this too, did not see its rightful fruition. Now, we have refiled this bill
under the auspices of the 13th Congress, and it is still pending at the
Committee on Appropriations since 2004," he said.

"The best gesture of love for our government employees is still the passage
of the P3,000 across-the-board salary hike which they have been lobbying for
the past five years," Beltran ended. #