SPEAKER Martin Romualdez has refiled a bill seeking to grant a monthly hazard pay to public prosecutors who take life-threatening risks in the performance of their duties.
Romualdez filed House Bill (HB) No. 2664 that proposes a P5,000 monthly hazard pay for prosecutors handling dangerous assignments such as inquest proceedings, preliminary investigations and prosecutions involving terrorism, illegal drugs, graft and corruption, money laundering and other high-risk offenses.
“In the performance of their functions, they are assigned to investigate and prosecute cases involving national security, dangerous drugs, terrorism and notorious criminals,” the Speaker said. “As a consequence of their duties and exposure to hazardous situations, many prosecutors have received death threats and a number of them have been killed in the line of duty.”
The Speaker’s bill, which was approved on third and final reading in the 19th Congress, was co-authored by Tingog party-list Reps. Yedda Marie Romualdez, his wife, and Andrew Julian Romualdez, their son, and Jude Acidre, also of Tingog.
The House leader, who is the president of the ruling Lakas-CMD and the bill’s co-authors, underscored the “indispensable role of public prosecutors in upholding the rule of law and protecting citizens.”
They lamented that prosecutors are often the targets of death threats and violence, with at least 13 killed in the line of duty over the past decade.
“Given the precarious nature of their work, prosecutors are thereby exposed to risks and perils to their lives,” they said.
The bill covers prosecutors from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Prosecution Service “who are assigned to high-risk areas or cases, including those involving national security, transnational crimes and environmental offenses.”
Prosecutors assigned in conflict zones, calamity areas, or isolated assignments are also covered and their hazard pay will be tax-exempt and will not diminish any existing benefits.
