For putting lives at risk: House panels OKs grant of hazard pay to public prosecutors

By Billy Begas

The House committees on Justice and on Ways and Means have approved a measure seeking to grant hazard pay to government prosecutors.

The still unnumbered measure, authored by Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez will grant additional incentives equivalent to 25% of the prosecutor’s basic salary.

Rodriguez said the government is already providing hazard pay equivalent to “at least 25 percent of monthly basic salary” to various government officials whose work entails “occupational risks or perils to life.”

Funds needed for the proposed hazard pay would be charged against the current budget of the National Prosecution Service of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Subsequently, the DOJ would include the needed amount in its annual budget proposal to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and Congress.

Under the government’s plantilla, there are four prosecutor positions: Prosecutor l to IV, with Salary Grades 26 to 29, respectively.

The highest basic monthly salaries for those in the prosecution service this year under the Salary Standardization Law 5 (Republic Act 11466) are P125,150, P141,426, P159,804, and P180,579 for Prosecutor I to IV, respectively.

The additional incentives would range from P31,287.50 to P45,144.75, Rodriguez said

Since 2016, the solon said that at least eight public prosecutors in the country were murdered while two fortunately survived attacks.

These incidents “highlight the dangers that our prosecutors face in the discharge of their vital role in dispensing justice,” he said.

“While there can never be a price that would ever be commensurate to their lives, additional compensation or hazard pay will be a good show of support and recognition of the importance of prosecutors,” Rodriguez added. (AFP)

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)