KEEPING true to his promise to police and military personnel, President Duterte issued late last month Executive Order 3 increasing the combat duty pay of armed forces personnel from P500 to P3,000 a month and of police forces from P340 to P3,000 a month. The combat incentive pay was increased from P150-P1,500 a month to P300-P3,000. The total budget for the increases is P12 billion.
In these initial months of his administration, President Duterte has worked closely with the police in carrying out the anti-drugs campaign. Some 3,700 persons have already been killed in the campaign, causing some United Nations officials to express concern over possible human rights violations. The President has rejected these fears, adding that most of the deaths were those of drug pushers resisting arrest. Some of policemen carrying out the drive were also killed, he said.
We should not begrudge the good fortune of our men in uniform, especially since the increased pay is for combat duty and, therefore, when the face great danger to their lives. But the fact is that as a result of inflation – rising prices – over the years, the salaries of most other workers in and out of government are now below the needs of their families.
The thousands of other government workers may feel they have been left behind because President Duterte chose to raise the pay of the men in uniform. What they should now do is to press, through their representatives in Congress and other officials, for their own pay increases, citing the police and military pay hikes as a precedent.
The nation’s teachers, in particular, have long asked for pay adjustments. At the celebration of World Teachers Day in October last year, the secretary of education of the Aquino administration Armin Luistro paid them the usual tribute for their most important role of educating the nation’s children and thus shaping the future of the country.
The teachers thanked him for the tribute but said, “Mas kailangan ng mga guro ang tunay na pagpapahalaga” – referring to an improvement in their pay.
In the latest Pulse Asia survey, conducted on September 25-Ocober 1, on the nation’s top concerns, 46 percent gave the need for higher pay as their top concern, followed by the need for more jobs and rising prices. In the earlier July survey, the top concern had been fighting criminality.
The anti-drugs campaign of the new administration appears to have met the people’s concern over crime. In the coming weeks and months, we hope the government will focus on economic development, on job creation, on better pay, and creating conditions that will make all these possible.