Veterans assured of P1.5-b pension

From the Manila Standard Today (Oct 17): Veterans assured of P1.5-b pension

President Benigno Aquino III has approved the release of P1.59 billion for the regular pension requirements of military veterans.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the amount will cover pension benefits for the last quarter of the year.

A total of 206,154 pensioners – whose identities have been certified and validated by the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office – will benefit from this latest release.

“Aside from the P7.94 billion we have released so far this year, this latest release supports the well-being of our military veterans and their families, ensuring that their pensions are well-provided for in the last quarter of the year. This is in line with the President’s continuing support to our veterans and their families who have demonstrated great bravery and loyalty to the country,” Abad said.

Abad said the list of pensioners has already been validated and purged.

Of the 211,913 pensioners who were included in the cleansed list, 37,634 accounts were classified “doubtful” because of the duplication of names and discrepancies in the account numbers assigned.

Thereafter, 31,875 additional pensioners were validated by PVAO as active and valid, making the total number of validated pensioners to 206,154, Abad said.

“Our dedication to deliver the pension benefits of our veterans in a timely fashion goes hand in hand with our commitment to ensure that public funds are well-accounted for.

Through our evaluation and validation process and the subsequent enrollment of all eligible pensioners to ATM accounts, we have successfully cleansed our beneficiary list of invalid, duplicate and ghost entries,” he said.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/10/17/veterans-assured-of-p1-5-b-pension/