MANILA, Philippines — Won’t extra rice be extra nice?
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is pushing for additional funding for the Philippine National Police so that members of the police force would get a higher monthly rice subsidy.
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Estrada said he wants to increase the monthly rice allowance for cops to P1,000 from P650, which he said is only equivalent to 20 kilos of rice.
This, he said, would mean that the PNP would need around P1 million more in its budget for next year.
“Baka pwede naman natin dagdagan. Gawing 50 kilos isang buwan. Kakayanin ba?” Estrada said Tuesday during the Senate’s plenary budget deliberations on the proposed 2023 budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
(Maybe we can increase it. Let’s make it 50 kilos per month. Is it possible?)
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, who was sponsoring the DILG’s budget, said he will be "forced to find funding" for Estrada’s proposal.
"Eh pagka kayo po ang nag-request, eh siyempre mapipilitan ho tayong maghanap ng pondo," Angara said.
(If you’re the one who requests, of course I would be forced to find funding.)
The police force started receiving a P650 a month rice allowance in 2017 during the administration of then President Rodrigo Duterte. It was also under Duterte when salaries of uniformed personnel were doubled.
Estrada’s call for extra rice for cops comes during a time when all Filipinos are tightening their belts in the face of a 14-year-high inflation rate and other economic headwinds.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, one of the largest labor organizations in the country, is calling for regional wage boards to immediately convene to conduct a review of the wages of workers.
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