Arenas files bill making govt workers receive P6,000 as monthly PERA
THIRD District Rep. Rachel Arenas filed a bill seeking to increase to P6,000, from P2,000, the monthly Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (P.E.R.A.) received by government employees.
House Bill No. 8892 authored by Arenas and filed in Congress on August 14 seeks to adjust the monthly PERA of government workers established more than 32 years ago.
“This bill seeks to increase the monthly PERA granted to public sector employees to P6,000 taking cognizance of the present day economic realities to help supplement the public sector employees’ salaries in the midst of rising cost of living further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Arenas’ bill partly read.
PERA was conceived 32 years ago to replace the P2,000 Cost of Living Allowance and to shield the salaries of public sector workers from the adverse impact of inflation brought about by two crippling oil price hikes in the latter part of 1990 and in anticipation of the economic fallout from the Gulf war.
Then President Fidel V. Ramos signed Administrative Order No. 53 in 1993, implementing the grant of additional compensation in the amount of P500 per month to public school teachers, uniformed personnel or the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines and extending the benefit to the rest of the workers in the bureaucracy.
On June 17, 2009, Joint Resolution No. 4 mandated that the additional compensation in the amount of P1,500 making the P500 PERA become P2,000.
Arenas maintained that increasing the monthly PERA will provide much-needed relief amidst high inflation and increasing prices of commodities and utilities. (Eva Visperas)
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