A House technical working group (TWG) of the Committees on Government Enterprises and Privatization and National Defense and Security has started consolidating two bills meant to reform the confusing retirement-benefit and pension system of the country’s seven major uniformed services.
Rep. Mark O. Go of the Lone District of Baguio City, TWG head, said: “President Rodrigo Duterte himself emphasized the need to reform the benefits and pension system of the uniformed services in his budget message to Congress for fiscal year 2017.”
The seven major uniformed services are the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard, Bureau of Fire Protection, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Corrections, and National Mapping and Resource Information Authority.
The TWG will harmonize House Bills 1137 and 5673 filed respectively by Reps. Gary Alejano of Magdalo and Francisco Jose Matugas of the First District of Surigao del Norte. The measures are both titled “Unified Uniformed Personnel Retirement Benefits and Pension Reform Act.”
The bills were supposed to address the many concerns of the major uniformed services of the government, as the State duly recognizes the vital role of the uniformed services in providing internal and external security, promoting peace and order, ensuring public safety and further strengthening local government capability aimed toward the effective delivery of basic services to the citizenry.
The State also acknowledges the extraordinary hazards, risks, perils and dangers the uniformed personnel encounter in the performance of their duties. It shall, therefore, be its prime concern to provide all uniformed personnel with adequate remuneration and benefits, including retirement benefits and pension.
Once consolidated into a new law, the existing retirees and future retirees of the uniformed services will be entitled to receive a monthly retirement pay equivalent to 2.5 percent for each year of active service rendered, but not exceeding 90 percent of the monthly base and longevity pay of the grade next higher than the permanent grade last held, amending Section 17 of Presidential Decree 1638, also known as “Establishing A New System Of Retirement And Separation For Military Personnel of The Armed Forces of The Philippines” issued in 1979 by former President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
The TWG will consider that new entrants who, at the time of their actual retirement, are eligible to receive retirement benefits and pension under existing laws applicable to the uniformed services, will be entitled to receive their lump- sum benefit equivalent to three years within one month of their effective date of retirement.
It will also see to it that all uniformed personnel who are disabled in the line of duty shall be eligible to receive a monthly pension, the rates of which shall be determined by the respective department concerned.
The two bills sought to provide a new fund-sourcing scheme for the unified retirees’ pension and benefits that is sustainable in the long term with the creation of a Uniformed Personnel Retirement Fund (UPRF) to be managed by the Government Service Insurance System for the sustainability of the retirement benefits and pension of uniformed personnel.
Once the new law is approved, it will be mandatory for new entrants to contribute a percentage of their monthly compensation as personal share and for the national government to contribute a corresponding share sourced from the general appropriations for the maintenance of the UPRF.
If authorized by the President, additional funds for the maintenance of the UPRF will be sourced from the sale or disposition of public lands.
Representatives of the seven major uniformed services presented their respective retirement and pension system during the hearing with a common aim that their retirement benefits and pension are secured and sustainable.
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