Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said that he would increase the salaries of policemen to P75,000 to P100,000 each within 3 years as part of his strategy to fight crime and corruption, should he be elected as president.
Cayetano, who presented their tandem’s platform “Pagbabagong Tunay” made the statement at a news conference in Taguig City on Monday.
Sen. Cayetano said that Duterte wants police officers to bear the cost of living so that they would not resort to illegal doings and scams.
He said that in Metro Manila, a person would have to spend P30,000 to P35,000 to be able to support his or her family. But a police officer or a jail guard could only earn P14,000 to P18,000 a month at the start of his or her career.
That’s why some our men in uniform is resorting to bribery and other corrupt practices, Cayetano said. Increasing their pay would enable them to meet the cost of living and focus on their work. He has said the same about soldiers.
Increasing the salaries of law enforcers to as much as double will cost about P150 billion, Cayetano said.
He said that the upgrading of salaries would not require additional taxation, based on computations.
“Even if our objective is to double, it’s P150 billion. The budget went from just over a trillion pesos when President Aquino took over to P3 trillion. So just the normal increase of revenues every year, which is P150 to P200 billion, can already cover the increases for 2017,” he said.
This could also be done by limiting infrastructure development and improvement to only a few key projects, he said.
Investing in the police force would show a return in several ways, said Cayetano.
“Their salaries need to be raised because two things will go away: crime and corruption. When there is no crime, there will be more investments, more business. Second, when there is no corruption, there will be more money for the government,” he said.
