A most welcome
law it will be

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The Philippine Senate has passed the bill that seeks to reform the compensation patterns of government financing institutions and government owned and controlled corporations.

Senate Bill No. 2640 is the measure that was spawned by the shocking revelations made by no less than the President himself during his first few days in office, about the inequity in the pay scales of government workers. In his revelations, President Benigno Aquino III focused on the unbelievable perks that officials and employees of such agencies enjoy, in addition to their salaries which are already far beyond those of the most hardworking workers of the bureaucracy, surpassing even those of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Statistics released, or unearthed by the media as soon as attention had been focused on the issue, confirmed such suspicious, because it seemed that the officers of those GFIs and GOCCs were appropriating for themselves not only exorbitant salaries, but also unimaginable bonuses, allowances, some with outlandish nomenclatures to justify their releases, and adding up to millions of pesos, particularly for officers, and commensurate ones for those in the lower ranks, obviously to keep them quiet.

After the disclosures made by the President, it was easy to see why most of these corporations and institutions were losing. And the demoralization it created among the ordinary government employee who works their fingers to the bone and often reach retirement age without any savings, since their pay could hardly meet the immediate needs of their families, was almost palpable. The inequity was such that one could almost classify it as one of the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance.

Now a bill has been passed to correct this situation. No doubt, the GOCC and GFI personnel and officials will sulk and complain, but they can take it or leave it. Since the President himself had made the exposé on this matter, the likelihood is that he will only be too eager to sign it into law.*