83,000 veterans owed P17B in disability – PVAO

From GMA News (Sep 16): 83,000 veterans owed P17B in disability – PVAO

The Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) admitted that the government owed more than P17 billion in disability benefits to more than 83,000 veterans and their spouses.

The PVAO explained that 1994's Republic Act 7696 entitled veterans that reached 70 years of age to a monthly Total Administrative Disability (TAD) benefit of P1,700, besides the P5,000 old age pension.

However, the government only started paying veterans disability in 2010. Thus the government now owes 83,346 veterans P17.53 billion in TAD pension.

Among those owed disability are 21,171 spouses of WWII veterans who have already died. Of these spouses, the PVAO is concentrating on paying 16,237 surviving spouses, those who are aged 80 and above, the P2.72 billion owed them.

PVAO administrator Ernesto Carolina said they are just stating the figures. “We do not want to blame anybody for this (accrued obligation),” Carolina said.

“We just want the truth to come out, just the facts. Ang totoo, there are people, 16,000 souls, 80 years old and above, asawa ng mga nakipaglaban noong giyera, may utang tayo, hindi natin binabayaran,” said Carolina. 

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/537039/news/nation/83-000-veterans-owed-p17b-in-disability-pvao