PERA Increase Bills: How Many Filed vs. How Many Became Law
PERA History at a Glance
The Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA) of government employees was first granted in 1991 at ₱500, raised to ₱1,000 via Administrative Order No. 53 in 1993, and then brought to the current ₱2,000 beginning January 2010 through Senate-HOR Joint Resolution No. 4, s. 2009 — which consolidated the old ₱500 PERA and ₱1,500 ADCOM (Additional Compensation) into one ₱2,000 allowance.
Bills Filed to Increase PERA (Per Congress)
Since the PERA was last adjusted in 2010, numerous Bills have been filed across multiple Congresses seeking to raise it further. Below are the known ones:
15th Congress
- SB No. 3125 (Sen. Francis Escudero) — increase + automatic inflation adjustment
- SB No. 3151 — (Sen. Manny Villar) increase to ₱4,000 (APERA)
16th–18th Congress
- Multiple bills by Sen. Escudero in successive Congresses (filed repeatedly as earlier bills expired without passage)
- Bills by Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Mark Villar seeking to double PERA to ₱4,000
19th to 20th Congress (2022–2025)
- SB No. 60 (Sen. Escudero) — increase + automatic adjustment; SB No. 60 also had support from the Commission on Human Rights, which called for its urgent passage to benefit approximately 1.8 million government employees
- SB No. 1406 (Sen. Revilla Jr.) — increase to ₱3,000;
- SB No. 1553 (Sen. Lapid) — increase to ₱3,000;
- SB from Sen. Recto — increase to ₱3,000; and SB from Sen. Villar — increase to ₱4,000
- SB No. 2673 (Sen. Tulfo) — increase to ₱4,000 with automatic inflation adjustment, filed May 2024
- House Bill by Rep. Maria Rachel Arenas — increase to ₱6,000
- HB No. 3874 (AKBAYAN Representatives Cendaña, Diokno, Ismula, and Bag-ao) — increase to ₱8,000
How Many Became Law?
Zero.
Zero (0) of the bills specifically seeking to increase PERA beyond ₱2,000 have been enacted into law as of today (March 2026).
The PERA remains at ₱2,000 per month, where it has been stuck since 2010. Multiple bills in Congress have noted that it has been 15 years since the last PERA increase, with inflation having significantly eroded its real value.
Why None Have Passed
The main obstacle is fiscal cost — raising PERA for ~1.8 million government employees by even ₱2,000 would cost tens of billions of pesos annually.
The DBM has consistently flagged funding concerns, and the Marcos administration opted to prioritize the four-round salary standardization increases (2024–2027) under the SSL instead of a standalone PERA hike.
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