P32 billion released for salary hike of government employees

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P32 billion as part of the pay adjustment among state workers in line with the latest tranche of the salary standardization law (SSL).

In a statement, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said P31.93 billion has been freed up for various departments and agencies, which is about 89 percent of the P36-billion allocation for this year’s Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund.

The P32 billion has been released to 257 departments and agencies while 58 more are now being processed.

“We urge the heads of the departments and agencies to immediately distribute the salary differential since the increase is retroactive starting January of this year,” Pangandaman said.

The release of funds relative to salary increase is based on the submitted requests of agencies to the DBM on their respective salary adjustment computations and requirements.

The DBM also created the SSL VI dashboard designed to provide real-time data on budget releases for easier monitoring and effective oversight.

Next year, the budget for the salary hike will be increased to P70 billion under the 2025 National Expenditure Program.

Two more salary hikes are expected by 2026 and 2027.

The SSL VI is designed to make public personnel’s salaries more competitive with those in the private sector aimed at boosting productivity, enhancing service delivery and improving overall government effectiveness.

The updated salary schedule applies to all civilian government personnel in the executive, legislative and judicial branches, state-run corporations not covered by the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation Governance Act, constitutional commissions and other constitutional offices and local government units.

Meanwhile, the salary increase is not applicable to military and uniformed personnel and individuals engaged without employer-employee relationship and funded from non-personnel services budget.

Data showed that the average salary increase for the first tranche is at 4.41 percent.