Duterte OKs grant of P10,000 incentive to personnel under executive; urges other agencies to do the same

December 21, 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte has authorized the grant of as much as P10,000 as service recognition incentive to government employees for this year.

Administrative Order No. 37, which Duterte signed on December 18, provides the grant of a one-time SRI at a uniform rate not exceeding P10,000 for personnel of the executive department.

The personnel include the civilian staff in national government agencies, including state universities and colleges and government-owned or -controlled corporations, occupying regular, contractual or casual positions; and military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the Department of National Defense, and uniformed personnel of the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology under the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Bureau of Corrections under the Department of Justice, the Philippine Coast Guard under the Department of Transportation, and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Those qualified to receive SRI are personnel occupying regular, contractual or casual positions; still in government service as of Nov. 30, 2020; those who have rendered at least a total or an aggregate of four months of satisfactory service as of Nov. 30, 2020, inclusive of services rendered under any of the alternative work arrangements prescribed by the Civil Service Commission; and those who have not received any additional year-end benefit in FY 2020 over and above the benefit authorized under Republic Act No. 6686, as amended by RA No. 8441.

For those who have rendered less than a total or an aggregate of four months of satisfactory service as of Nov. 30, 2020 shall be entitled to a pro-rated share of the SRI, as follows: for three months but less than four months, 40 percent; two months but less than three months, 30 percent; one month but less than two months, 20 percent; and less than one month, 10 percent.

Excluded from the grant of the SRI are those engaged without employer-employee relationship and whose compensation are funded from non-personnel services appropriations/budgets, such as consultants and experts engaged for a limited period to perform specific activities or services with expected outputs; laborers engaged through job contracts and those paid on piecework basis; student workers and apprentices; and individuals and groups of people whose services are engaged through job orders, contracts of service or others similarly situated.

Should the identified funding source prove insufficient to cover the full amount of the SRI, a lower but uniform amount shall be paid to all qualified employees of the NGA or GOCC.

The AO said employees in the Senate, House of Representatives, Judiciary, Office of the Ombudsman and Constitutional Offices vested with fiscal autonomy may also be granted a one-time SRI by their respective heads of offices at a uniform rate not exceeding P10,000 each, chargeable against the available released allotment of their respective agencies.

The grant of one-time SRI to employees in local government units, including those in the barangays, shall be determined by their respective sanggunians depending on the LGU's financial capability, subject to the personnel services' limitation in LGU budgets under RA No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991.

"In determining the amount of the SRI, the sanggunians shall exercise prudence and judicious use of government funds; ensuring that the expenditure is reasonable and will not, in any way, adversely affect the delivery of services to the public," AO said.

The local water districts may also grant SRI to their employees.

The payment of the SRI to all qualified government employees shall not be earlier than December 21.

The Order shall take effect immediately following its complete publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation. Celerina Monte/DMS