BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

PRESIDENT Arroyo yesterday signed an executive order granting a 10 percent wage hike for government employees starting July 1.

The increase would be sourced from the P41 billion allocation for "Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund" in the 2008 national budget.

The wage hike in the basic pay of 898,849 national government employees will cost P9.216 billion. For the 277,905 soldiers, policemen, firemen, jail guards, and Coast Guard personnel, the increase will amount to P2.844 billion for six months.

The adjustment is the third since January 2006 when a P1,000 across the board adjustment was implemented. The second, a 10 percent increase in the base pay, took effect in July 2006.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. has said the adjustments are part of "a multi-year schedule to increase public sector wages by installment."

Arroyo did not give a Labor Day address. She instead visited meetings of the wage boards of Metro Manila at UP Diliman and Region 3 (Central Luzon) at the Villanueva, De Leon, Hipolito, Cusi, Tuazon Law offices in Angeles City, Pampanga.

She was accompanied by Labor Secretary Marianito Roque.

Arroyo said she conducted surprise visits to the meetings "not to exert undue pressure.but just to see for myself how things are going."

She said she did not make comments during the meetings and merely observed the deliberations of the boards.

Arroyo had ordered the regional wage boards to work even during Labor Day, a holiday, so they could soon come up with decisions on salary adjustment petitions.

Roque said they expect the wage boards to finish deliberations within the month.

Labor groups in Central Luzon and Metro Manila are seeking an across the board wage increase of P60 and P80, respectively.

The minimum wage in Central Luzon ranges from P201 to P287 following a P9 increase in September last year, and P325 to P362 in NCR following a P12 hike last August.

Some lawmakers are calling for a legislated wage hike of P125 across the board.

Aida Andres, secretary of the Metro Manila wage board, said an increase of P60 to P125 across the board at this time might result in increased unemployment or displacement of at least 900,000 workers.

The National Wages and Productivity Commission said the NCR board has already set a public consultation for May 13. The consultation is among the last requirements for determining the amount of salary adjustment.

"If all evidences are submitted during the May 13 hearing, the board will begin the marathon deliberations and in the next two or three days there will be a decision," said Ciriaco Lagunzad, NWPC executive director, at the sidelines of the Labor Day Job Fair at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Lagunzad also said he is expecting key regions such as the Central and Southern Luzon as well as the Central Visayas to be among the first wage boards to issue wage orders.

"We are hopeful that before end of June all wage boards will have issued the order," he said.

Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Miguel Zubiri urged the House and Senate leaderships to fast-track the passage of measures for a legislated wage hike and tax breaks.

Revilla said the proposed P125 daily across-the-board wage increase would ease the impact of rising prices.

Zubiri said tax breaks would give workers "extra cash by letting go of the income taxes we currently collect from them - the money they worked for but never enjoy as the tax is automatically deducted."

He said computations by the National Wages and Productivity Commission and the successive price hikes of basic commodities and services have eroded the purchasing power of workers.