The Philippine Army (PA) clarified on Sunday that the
reported increase in the 2016 budget of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical
Unit (CAFGU) is due to the raising of the latter's subsistence allowance.
This is contrary to claims that the budget increase is aimed
at the recruitment of additional CAFGUs, PA spokesperson Col.
The subsistence allowance of military personnel has been
increased from PhP90 to PhP150 per day. The increase took effect in mid-2014
but was fully implemented this year.
Just like the regular soldiers, CAFGU members also now
receive PhP150 subsistence allowance daily or a total of PhP4,500 or Php4,650
per month.
This is the main reason for the increase of the CAFGU budget
in 2016 which amounted to PhP3.4 billion, Hao said.
Since this is the only monetary entitlement the CAFGUs
receive, their deployment and utilization are done in a manner that their
livelihood activities are not impaired.
In order to ensure the CAFGUs’ welfare, Hao said the PA
facilitates special benefits for them, including individual clothing and
individual equipment (ICIE), scholarship for dependents, maintenance of CAFGU
bases, PhilHealth and insurance benefits.
He added the PA is also putting on hold the recruitment of
CAFGU members this year in compliance with the provisions of the General
Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2015.
Section 3 of the General Provisions of GAA 2015 provides
that: xxxx "No new CAFGUs shall be recruited for training and the
corresponding costs attendant to the training of existing CAFGUs shall be
gradually scaled down in anticipation of its planned demobilization as a result
of the implementation of the Revised AFP Modernization Program."
As of August this year, there were 53,004 CAFGU members
deployed to the 14 battalions of the Philippine Army which administers the
CAFGU units. The CAFGU strength at the start of 2015 was around 56,000.
The average monthly loss of CAFGU members nationwide in the
Army roster is 400. This is due to deaths, voluntary termination of service,
and administrative cases.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=816548
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