The President of the Republic of the Philippines, Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III has issued EO No. 201 increasing the pay of government employees months after Congress failed to ratify a new Salary Standardization Law (SSL). Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. released a statement to the media, announcing the president’s latest Executive Order.
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement: “President Aquino has signed an executive order ‘Modifying the Salary Schedule for Civilian Government Personnel and Authorizing the Grant of Additional Benefits for both Civilian and Military and Uniformed Personnel,’”
According to Sec. Coloma the Executive Order would effectively implement the “first of the four tranches provided for in the proposed SSL 2015 law or SSL 4 that has not been enacted by Congress.”
The first tranche may be implemented in accordance to Republic Act. No. 10717 or the 2016 General Appropriations Act, which already provides for a budget of P57.9 billion. Based upon EO no. 201 states that the minimum salary of Salary Grade 1 employees will increase from P9,000 to P11,068 a month.
It also calls for a “compensation adjustment strategy,” which aims to “bring the compensation of government personnel closer to their private counterparts to at least 70 percent of the median of the market for all salary grades.”
Pres. Aquino approved and signed the EO No. 201 upon his arrival on Friday, February 19, 2016 from his participation in the Special ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)-US Summit and a working visit in Los Angeles, California.