Legarda: Pay Hike of Police and Military, Additional CAFGU Allowance in 2019 Budget

Senator Loren Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, said that the 2019 national budget continues to fund the increase in base pay of military and uniformed personnel in the government, which started in the 2018 budget.

Legarda said that under the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has a total budget of P180 billion that includes funding for the increased base pay of the military. It also includes funding for additional allowance for Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU).

Legarda, who is running for Congresswoman of the lone district of Antique, supported the increase in CAFGU allowance. The Senate augmented the CAFGU budget with P850 million. Now with a total budget of P4.6 billion, CAFGU personnel will get additional P2,000 in their monthly allowance in the next 6 months to support their daily needs.

For the Philippine National Police (PNP), a total budget of P173 billion has been provided for 2019. Aside from funding for the increased base pay of police personnel, the budget includes the Senate amendment of P827.696 million to further support its needs for trainings, equipment and facilities, including maintenance of its newly procured helicopter.

In previous years, Legarda has supported funding for the purchase of helicopters to strengthen the PNP’s capacity to fight crime and maintain peace and order. In 2017, P545 million was allocated for the procurement of a brand new twin-engine rotary wing helicopter. In 2018, P451 million was allocated for the purchase of two units of single engine helicopters.

Legarda said that for Antique, there is funding for acquisition of a patrol boat, since Antique is a coastal province with 15 coastal towns; a patrol car; and CCTV for the Antique Provincial Police Office.

“We support the needs of our police and military, including CAFGU personnel, to ensure that they can ably and efficiently carry out their duty to protect our people and our communities. Aside from intelligence fund, equipment and facilities, we also prioritize the salary, allowance and other benefits of our military and uniformed personnel to better compensate for the hazards they face in the course of performing their duties,” said Legarda.

Legarda is a three-term senator who chairs the Senate Committees on Finance, Foreign Relations and Climate Change. She topped the Master in National Security Administration (MNSA) Program of the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) in 1993, and in 2017, she graduated from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Command and General Staff College. Legarda is a reserve officer of the AFP with a rank of Colonel.