Thursday, April 4, 2013

AFP, PNP retirement 'time bomb' bogs DBM - Abad

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 3): AFP, PNP retirement 'time bomb' bogs DBM - Abad

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) secretary Florencio Abad on Wednesday admitted that a "time bomb" is lurking at his office regarding the retirement payment scheme of retirees of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) set to explode by 2015-2016.

Abad said the retirement payment will be greater than the salaries of those in active service by then and estimated to be P18 billion for the AFP retirees and about P17 billion for retirees of the PNP.

The budget chief was in Iloilo City on Wednesday to keynote the first quarter meeting of the Philippine Association for Government Budget Administration (PAGBA), Inc.

Abad explained that members of the AFP and PNP do not contribute to the Government Services Insurance System (GSIS) for their retirement benefit but the national government is paying their pension retirement which they have not contributed to the fund.

The DBM chief said his office is currently reviewing the whole pension system in order to have a more rationalized pension policy in close consultation with the AFP and PNP officials.

Earlier, retirees in Western Visayas led by retired policeman Jimmy Punzalan expressed apprehension over the proposed reduction of the monthly retirement pension complemented by non-paying of pension increases due to a P35 billion pension fund in arrears.

Abad admitted that the rationalization of the pension fund may cause some disagreements but he said the Aquino administration is doing everything to settle the problem.

He assured that retirees will get what is due them.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=512765

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.