P5,000 Salary Increase Waiting for PNP and AFP Personnel

Forces fighting against drugs will receiver salary increase starting September

Despite criticisms of some officials that the promise of President Rodrigo Duterte to give salary increase on police and soldiers is impossible this year, it seems that this statement will come true in the coming months.

In some speeches of the president during his visit on army camps and events of the Philippine National Police, he promised to give increase on the salary of these employees at the end of August.

On Wednesday, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the members of PNP and Armed Forces of the Philippines, who are at the forefront of President Rodrigo Duterte’s relentless anti-crime drive, will get a roughly P5,000 adjustment in their allowance as early as September.

President Rodrigo Duterte has announced a sharp increase in next year’s national budget to fund his controversial war on crime, with security forces to get big pay rises.

On the submitted 2017 annual budget, the police budget will increase by 24.6 percent, to P110.4 billion, with the money to be spent on hiring more officers, raising their salaries and buying them more guns, according to a government statement.

The judiciary’s budget will rise by 21.5 percent to help them handle more cases, it said.

Duterte is also planning a 15-percent rise in the military budget, to P130.6 billion.

Duterte’s promise to double their salaries will be done in January 2018, Diokno said, adding, “Pwede na itaga sa bato [Mark my words].”

“Nagsubmit na ako sa kanya ng report, draft EO to effect the adjustment. Uumpisahan natin yan before the end of the year, baka September magkaroon na ng across the board increase [I’ve submitted a report to the President, a draft EO to effect the adjustment. We will start implementing it before the end of the year, maybe by September there will be an across the board increase],” Diokno said.

Aside from the pay increases, Diokno said government was working out a 20-kilo monthly rice allowance for security forces.

As we know, Duterte tapped AFP members in his campaign against illegal drugs.