(UPDATE) TWO government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) idle funds will be tapped for unprogrammed appropriations to cover salary increases and benefits for the country’s civil servants.
The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) and the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) were asked to remit a combined total of P67.6 billion from their idle funds to finance salary increases and benefits for certain government workers.
Of the total, approximately 1.8 million government employees are expected to benefit from the P40 billion for the rollout of salary increases.
The remaining P27.6 billion will be allocated for government employee benefits, which will cover costs like salary adjustments, staffing changes and the performance-based bonus for national government agency personnel.
It was revealed that the PDIC had an unused fund of P117 billion while PhilHealth had P89.9 billion.
Earlier in May, PhilHealth remitted P20 billion, which was allocated for P27.7 billion in emergency benefits and allowances for Covid-19 frontliners.
It also remitted an additional P10 billion to the national government on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, budget authorities said that government workers are expected to receive their salary increase within this year.
Government agencies may start implementing the increases this month as the first part of the four-tranche salary increase will start this year, retroactive to January 2024, with annual adjustments continuing from January 2025 to January 2027.
The initial increase will average 4.41-percent across salary grades (SG-1 to SG-31), raising government employee compensation to 84.33 percent of market rates.
For subprofessional level (SGs 1 to 10), increases will range from 4 percent to 5.20 percent, with the minimum salary (SG-1) rising from P13,000 to P13,530.
At the professional level (SGs 11 to 24), increases will be 4.50 percent to 5.60 percent, while the managerial level (SGs 25 to 28) will see increases of 4.15 percent to 4.40 percent.
Meanwhile, executive level (SGs 29 to 31) will receive 2.65 percent to 3.90 percent, and top leaders (SGs 31 to 33) will get increases of 2.35 percent to 2.40 percent.
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