Marcos wants to strip government employees of bonuses

📷President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. | Lowy Institute

THIS day – June 9,2024 – would be a date worth remembering for some 1.8 million government employees as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. mulls stripping two bonuses for state workers.

To start off, Marcos issued an order to review and overhaul two performance evaluation schemes due to its duplication with existing mechanisms which serve as parameters in awarding an added monetary perk to government personnel.

In his Executive Order No. 61, Marcos effectively suspended the implementation of the Results-Based Performance Management System and Performance-Based Incentive System, which may affect the P5,000 year-end bonus and another which is equivalent to two months’ worth of salary.

According to Marcos, both bonus schemes which are designed to encourage state workers to go beyond the traditional working norm are “duplicative and redundant.”

Palace however clarified that the President’s directive is merely meant to make a review, and possibly integrate both bonus schemes into one by way of enhancing the review mechanism of its internal and external audit and evaluation systems.

Under the same EO, a technical working group composed of the budget secretary as chairperson and the executive secretary as co-chair, with the finance secretary, socio-economic planning secretary and director general of the Anti-Red Tape Authority as members, will be formed with a marching order to come up with a recommendation within a six-month period.

Afterwhich, the technical working group would formulate a transition plan for the grant of a new performance-based bonus to government employees within the next three months.

The new bonus scheme will “integrate, streamline and align the new government performance management system” with other programs and systems as provided for by existing laws and issuances.

“The new government performance management and incentives systems shall be aligned with ease of doing business initiatives, the Philippine Development Plan, the socio-economic agenda of the administration and international standards and best practices,” EO 61 further reads. (ANGEL F. JOSE)