Congress was asked to frontload passage of an enabling legislation doubling government workers’ Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA) from P2,000 to P4,000 to enable 1.8-million state employees to cope with the double-whammy triggered by skyrocketing fuel prices amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In filing Senate Bill No. 60 (SB-60), Senator Francis Escudero also sought to “provide automatic yearly adjustment” in state workers allowance “equivalent to any increase of the annual inflation rate” to meet their needs.
Stressing that the proposed double allowance was intended to provide economic relief for government workers, Escudero explained he filed a bill that will “raise to P4,000 from P2,000 the PERA of some 1.8 million government employees as a way of helping them cope with higher prices brought about by the lingering Covid-19 pandemic and fuel hikes.”
As filed, Escudero recalled the PERA bill was originally introduced in the early 1990s as “a subsidy granted to all government workers as a form of assistance to help make ends meet in the face of economic crisis, as well as higher prices.”
Moreover, he asserted “higher gasoline prices, higher transportation fares and higher prices of basic commodities since PERA’s inception have proven that PERA augments the earnings of a government worker not just as an emergency allowance, but as a major source of additional funding to be able to afford basic commodities.”
As proposed in the Escudero bill, he noted that PERA will still “cover all civilian government employees both in the local and national level whether appointive or elective, and whether occupying regular, contractual, or casual positions, whose positions are covered by Republic Act No. 6758, or the Compensation and Position Classification Act of 1989.”
The senator added, “It shall also cover military and uniformed personnel, except for those who are stationed abroad that are already receiving overseas allowances.”
Under Senate Bill 60, the first year of the augmented allowance’s implementation, the funds necessary for PERA of national and local government agencies shall be charged against savings estimated at P62 billion, representing unreleased appropriations and other programmed appropriations.
Thereafter, the Escudero bill also provides that “the amount necessary shall be provided in the annual General Appropriations Act [GAA].”
In addition, Escudero explained that “looking after the welfare of government employees was among the commitments” he made during the election campaign in recognition of the government employees’ role in creating a bureaucracy that is efficient and effective.
At the same time, Escudero is batting for increased PERA even as he expressed support for the plan of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to “streamline and reorganize the bureaucracy seen to save P14.8 billion in annual government expenditure.”
He, however, noted, “the DBM plan is on the right path, even as the senator acknowledged, “it would be a difficult process.”
“They just have to pour in the time to study which positions are redundant or unnecessary and to make sure that those that may be affected are given proper compensation on top of whatever benefits from the GSIS [Government Service Insurance System] in order to help them get by and start anew amidst these trying economic times,” he said.
Escudero, a former governor of Sorsogon reminded, “in so far as streamlining the local government units [LGUs] are concerned, the matter should be left to the provincial, city or municipal governments themselves,” stressing that “it should be totally up to them [as] this is part of devolution enshrined in our Constitution and the Local Government Code.”