LINGAYEN—Provincial employees will start receiving their additional P1,000 compensation allowance next month.

Provincial Treasurer Ramon Crisostomo said the additional monthly allowance is retroactive to January this year, meaning each regular or casual employee will get P 5,000 covering the period January to May and P1, 500 each month thereafter.

The additional compensation allowance (ACA) was set to be given starting on Monday but Crisostomo said he was informed by the Land Bank of the Philippines that the release of the money to all the provinces has been reset for June.

The additional allowance will be sourced out from the increased internal revenue allotment (IRA) due the province in 2001 and 2002.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo agreed to release the money to all the local government units, starting with the towns and cities.

The share of the towns and cities has been released, except that of the provinces. Crisostomo said the release of the withheld additional IRA of the provinces will be discussed when the LBP central office and the Governors League of the Philippines meet next week.

“We understand the plight of the provincial employees, but we cannot do anything but to wait for the release of the monetization of our IRA,” Crisostomo said..

The additional IRA due the province for the years 2001 and 2002 is estimated at P110 million, from which the bank is collecting interest payment. The additional IRA was supposed to be released by the Department of Budget and Management on staggered basis within a period of seven years.

Pangasinan however availed of the monetization of IRA through the bank to enable it to pay the additional compensation allowance of the employees, which is about P40 million a year, Crisostomo said.

“We have to wait for the creditization of the net amount due to the province from the Land Bank,” the provincial treasurer explained.

Gov. Victor Agbayani issued a memorandum approving the allocation of the additional allowance of all provincial employees effective January 2006 after meeting with the department heads. (MERLY TIBALAO/PIO)