(Eagle News)– Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Tuesday (January 3) confirmed that the police and the military will receive their pay hike starting the month of January in line with the government’s salary standardization program.
Even public school teachers and government hospital personnel were also included in the salary increase.
“They are part of these tranches. But it does not mean that we will double their salary because right now the pay of public school teachers are much higher than of private school teachers,” Diokno said during a press briefing in Malacañang.
Diokno also noted the government would be able to double the salary of soldiers by 2018.
“As far as the military is concerned, we will be able to comply with the desire of the President to double their take-home pay by January 2018. Sooner, if we pass the tax reform,” he added.
“There’s already an allocation in the 2017 budget for a salary increase, second tranche. But we will go to Congress and ask for authority,” Diokno said.
Diokno explained that salary adjustment was just as a follow-through of a previous executive order of former President Benigno Aquino III regarding the government workers’ pay hike.