No productivity bonus for gov’t workers

MANILA, Philippines - The 1.1 million government workforce will not receive the P10,000 productivity enhancement incentive (PEI) given to them last year, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said last year the national government took on the additional P5,000, since concerned agencies only paid out P5,000.

Lacierda said government employees will still get the mandatory 13th month pay and other bonuses like the Performance Based Bonus (PBB) for deserving workers.

“But that (PBB) is a merit-based bonus,” he said.

“So I’m sure if an employee performs well, we see no reason why (he or she) will not be able to receive the PBB.”

Lacierda said the national government made use of the P5,000 to form part of the PBB to reward hardworking state workers.

“Now we’re using that additional P5,000 instead of giving it to everyone,” he said.

“This PBB is a way of recognizing the people who work hard in the government.”

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the PBB aims to encourage good performance in the public service sector.

The government’s objective is to achieve a performance-based system for government employees to boost morale and improve the delivery of goods and services, he added.

Abad said the PBB will “reshape the bureaucratic culture” in government and replace it with a “culture of excellence in the bureaucracy.”

“Reshaping the bureaucratic culture through PBB will be contentious at first because it is new and it has never been done before, but we hope that eventually, it will ease itself into general acceptance among those in the bureaucracy,” he said.

The PBB is on top of and distinct from other benefits that civil servants already receive, such as the productivity enhancement incentive (PEI).

“The PEI has been fixed this year at P5,000 for all government employees.”

The PBB is a strictly merit-based incentive system given to deserving government employees for exemplary work in government service.

Unlike other bonuses, an employee receives the PBB based on how well he serves the public, with the ultimate objective of delivering public goods and services among our people.

Public school teachers accused the government yesterday of effectively cutting by half their P10,000 Christmas-time PEI  in implementing the PBB scheme.

Some 60 public school teachers from the Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) picketed yesterday the Department of Budget and Management in Manila to join the symbolic protest denouncing the reduction of their “traditional” P10, 000 PEI.

The protesting teachers from TDC, a federation of public school teachers’’ associations, sang popular Christmas songs with altered lyrics to air their grievance.

Calocan City teacher Benjo Basas, TDC national chairman, said the year-end incentive for teachers has been  a tradition. – Delon Porcalla, Rainier Allan Ronda