PGMA assures state workers of salary increases until 2013
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assured government workers of pay increases for the next three years as prescribed under the Salary Standardization Law III which she signed into law June last year.
The SSL III is expected to benefit more than 1.5 million government employees. The salary increases will be given in four yearly tranches until 2013.
The basic salary, including step increments, where an employee may progress from step 1 to step 8 of the salary grade allocation, will be the primary component of the compensation framework.
The framework seeks to rationalize and standardize the basic salaries, allowances, benefits and incentives for government officials and employees.
In her speech keynoting the 16th anniversary of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) held at the commission’s headquarters yesterday afternoon, the President attributed the benefit to the “bitter but necessary economic and financial reforms” implemented to increase revenues.
She said the expanded value added tax law (E-VAT) which increased the VAT on taxable items to 12 percent was the main source of “fresh funds which we reinvested in our people through expanded and improved education, social services, infrastructure and salary increases.”
“The latest (salary) increase was granted in July last year and that covered everyone in government service including teachers in the SUCs (state universities and colleges), specialized schools and of course as well as the staff in the Commission on Higher Education,” the President said to thunderous applause from the more than 300 officers and employees of CHED.
“Because of the Salary Standardization Law that we enacted during my administration, even when I am no longer President, you will continue to receive increases for the next three years,” she added.
The President said that the next round of salary increases for government workers is slated to be given this July. (PND)
Palace glad over improved RP competitiveness ranking
Malacañang today expressed satisfaction over the four-step improvement in the ranking of the
In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Ricardo Saludo said the government felt gratified by the rating improvement because it has in particular strived to maintain the country’s economic growth and to address inefficiencies in government.
“Our economy has been among the top performing in the world during the global recession. We were one of the few economies that maintained our growth, which the Arroyo administration has maintained for more than nine years, including second quarter of 2010,” Saludo added.
The Palace is certainly very happy about this achievement and now we are happy that the world has acknowledged this and will hopefully improve perceptions of investors regarding our country, Saludo said.
The
Among the Asean peers,
The report said that for 2010, the Philippines has to hurdle challenges like applying the rule of law and restoring faith in public institutions, ensuring food and energy security, planning for natural disasters and climate change, providing entrepreneurial opportunities, jobs, skills training and education in the countryside, and addressing migration into cities and configuring urban areas appropriately.
Saludo said the second area of focus is government efficiency, particularly in processing permits, licenses and other procedural requirements for businesses and investments.
This was addressed by Civil Service Commission, which Saludo used to chair, when it adopted the Anti Red Tape Act.
“This was a one-year deadline given to CSC and we completed it in September 2009 with 4,000 government entities having been made compliant with the Anti Red Tape Act,” Saludo added.
Saludo said the implementation of the Anti Red Tape Act has helped improved government efficiency rating and he hopes that this would be maintained.
He said he hopes that the massive infrastructure achievements of the Arroyo administration will somehow be acknowledged by the rating institution into changing its current negative rating on this area. In this aspect, the
Saludo said that certainly the Ro-Ro [roll on roll off], the nautical highway, the expressways that have been built, the airports and ports, tourism centers, the massive irrigation works that have been done exceeding a million hectares in new or rehabilitated areas plus our efforts at improving the power supply despite the brownouts this year, have improved our infrastructure for business and we hope that future surveys will acknowledge these.
Under the infrastructure sub-index which include basic infrastructure, scientific infrastructure and education, the country ranked 56th. However in health and environment it got a ranking of 48 and in technological infrastructure, it placed high at 29th. (PND)
