Retirees to air gripe on ?missing’ pension

CEBU, Philippines - The members of the Philippine National Police Retirees Association, Inc. (PRAI) are set to hold a nationwide rally on Friday, June 30, to call for the release of their pension differential amounting to P8 billion.

The simultaneous rally will be held in front of Camp Crame in Quezon City and all regional police headquarters.

PNP retirees will also raise their concerns on the implementation of Executive Order No. 201 issued by then president Benigno Aquino III. The EO, the retirees said, does not provide for indexation or the pegging of pensions of retired uniformed personnel to current salaries.

Retired senior Superintendent Walberto Mandin, PRAI-7 president, said they have been raising the issue since the time of Aquino, but to no avail.

The alleged inaction of the government has prompted the retirees to stage a rally to bring their plights to the attention of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Mandin said the members of the Board of Trustees and officers of PRAI led by retired Police Director Van Luspo as chairman and president had requested an audience with Duterte to tackle the issues but they got no response yet.

 “We want to denounce this maltreatment we are receiving from this government on account precisely of not releasing our differential which resulted in the delay in the implementation of the 3rd Salary Standardization Law,” Luspo earlier said.

Executive Order No. 811 or the Salary Standardization Law provides the yearly increase in the PNP pension differential effective January 2010.

Mandin said Duterte’s order during the 75th anniversary of Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) last April 9 for the early release of pension for retirees of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) had caught them by surprise.

Duterte announced his directive towards the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of National Defense to expedite the release of AFP retirees’ pension credentials for fiscal years 2008 to 2013 amounting to over P6 billion.

Before the 2016 elections, members of PRAI in Cebu have joined the call for the release of their pension differential amounting to P8 billion.

It was former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad who reportedly refused to sign the Special Allotment Release Order for unknown reason.

PRAI is composed of more than 17,000 PNP retirees, pensioners, pensioner-transferees and survivors, representing more than 65,000 PNP pensioners nationwide.

In Cebu, there are more than 300 police retirees but only 139 are in good standing members of the association whose monthly pension ranges from P20,000 to P60,000. (FREEMAN)