Duterte, lawmakers not covered by pay hike

MANILA, Philippines — The new four-year salary increase program for government workers that is set to start on Jan. 1 will not cover President Duterte and members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“It will apply to all personnel of the bureaucracy, except the President and us lawmakers,” Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who chairs the House appropriations committee, said yesterday.

He said the Constitution prohibits the president and lawmakers from receiving the salary increase they approved.

“We will continue getting the present rates,” he said.

Section 10 of Article VI (The Legislative Department) of the Constitution provides, “The salaries of senators and members of the House of Representatives shall be determined by law. No increase in said compensation shall take effect until after the expiration of the full term of all the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives approving such increase.”

There is a similar prohibition in Section 6, Article VII (Executive Department). 

It states that the salaries of the president and vice president shall be set by law and shall not be decreased during their tenure.

It further provides, “No increase in said compensation shall take effect until after the expiration of the term of the incumbent during which such increase was approved.”

Deputy Speaker Neptali Gonzales recalled that because of the prohibition in Section 10 of Article VI, a previous salary increase did not apply to members of the 9th, 10th and 11th Congress.

“I was elected to the 11th Congress. I did not get the increase, since some of those who approved it were still incumbents then. It applied to us only when all of those who passed the pay adjustment bill were out of Congress,” he said.

The new compensation adjustment program is contained in Bill 5712, authored by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte and Ungab. 

The House approved it on third and final reading on Wednesday. The Senate earlier approved its own version of the measure.

If President Duterte signs it into law before yearend, it will take effect on New Year’s Day. If he signs it later, the increase will retroact to Jan. 1.