The timing is allegedly just a coincidence.
“During the Development Budget Coordinating Committee hearing at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, August 7, Budget Secretary Butch Abad stated that while there is no pay hike for government workers in the proposed PHP2.6 trillion national budget for 2015, the budget department is targeting another round of salary increase in 2016, or the year of the next presidential elections,” reports Mark Jason Cayabyab on Inquirer.net.
When ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio pointed out that the government’s target for a salary increase coincided with the 2016 presidential elections, Abad said it was just “incidental.”
Screengrab from a news video
