The chairperson of the House of Representatives' committee on appropriations has assured the retirees among the country's uniformed personnel that beginning 2019 or even earlier, their pensions shall be calibrated at par with the pay hike to be received by their active counterparts.
“The commitment of Malacañang, which is the guiding policy of the House of Representatives that possesses the power of the purse, is to adjust the pension of retirees in the MUP sector by 2019,” Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, the panel chairperson, said.
The indexation of pensions is expected to benefit over 200,000 retirees, the three-term congressman noted. It will cost the government an estimated P38 billion.
Nograles said the indexation will take effect following the salary increase that has been allotted for military and uniformed personnel beginning January 2018 wherein the monthly base pay of a Police Officer 1 in the Philippine National Police or a Private in the Armed Forces of the Philippines will be doubled.
The same is true for equivalent ranks in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Public Safety College, Philippine Coast Guard, and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, he added.
Calibrated increases in base salaries will also be given to those in higher ranks.
“President Rodrigo Duterte would be the first to tell you that the retired sector deserves all the compensation and benefits that it can get from government. Indeed, loyalty, perseverance, and hard work must be rewarded,” Nograles said.
The one-year suspension of the indexation of pensions will give government some time to make adjustments in the national budget.
Nograles assured that the House, which exetcises the “power of the purse,” will look for funds for the pension adjustment under the 2019 national budget.
“It will be a challenge but it will not be impossible. Just look at how we were able to find P40 billion for the free higher education program in the P3.767-trillion General Appropriations Act of 2018,” Nograles said.
“We have been preparing for the pension indexation as early as this year. So we definitely don’t intend to disappoint our retirees in 2019,” he added.
The free higher education program, which will also be rolled out in 2018, is provided for under Republic Act 10931 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act. The law was signed after the 2018 National Expenditure Program—the precursor of the national budget—had been submitted to Congress, meaning no funds had been set aside to cover the free tuition and miscellaneous fees of state colleges and universities at the time of its enactment.