Tinio pushes hike to gov’t workers’ allowance in 2027 budget

MANILA, Philippines — ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio on Tuesday urged lawmakers to increase allowances for civil servants by raising the funding for the Personal Economic Relief Allowance (Pera), a stipend whose amount has remained unchanged for 17 years.

Tinio formalized his appeal by submitting a petition signed by more than 320,000 government workers to the office of House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III, as a sub-committee of select lawmakers plans to hold a meeting later this week to discuss proposed amendments to the P7.2-trillion spending plan.

“We appeal to the speaker and the committee of appropriations led by chair Mika Suansing to heed the clamor of government employees… to hike the P2,000 a month allowance to P5,000,” he told reporters.

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READ: Tinio questions P500 Pera hike, calls for budget realignment

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Pera was introduced in the early 1990s as a subsidy to help state workers cope with soaring prices of basic goods triggered by oil price hikes then. 

The Department of Budget and Management in mid-September said Pera will be hiked by P500 per month next year, an amount Tinio described as “not enough” for government workers bearing the brunt of rising costs.

Tinio said there are “many lump sums” in the budget which could be used to hike the P11.79 billion allotted for the stipend’s funding next year, referring to the executive’s financial assistance for local governments and funding for flood control projects.

“The government is very much capable of providing more, just like what happened with the military and uniformed personnel,” he said in Filipino, noting that their allowance was hiked to P350 per day from P150 this year. /mr