President Rodrigo Duterte has acted on the appeal of Philippine National Police retirees to stop the automatic loan deductions on their monthly pensions.
lnterior department officer-in-charge Eduardo Año and PNP chief Oscar Albayalde vowed to stop the illegal loan payment.
The President’s swift action came a week after a group of PNP retirees aired their appeal to stop the Automatic Pension Deduction Scheme which is being collected by the PNP-accredited multi-purpose cooperatives and savings and loan Associations.
Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go said the issue on the loan deductions was tackled during the joint command conference of the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Malacañang on Tuesday.
At least 74 PNP officers complained that six multi-purpose cooperatives had imposed excessive interest rates on monthly automatic loan payments, which former PNP chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa earlier ordered to be terminated.
But despite Dela Rosa’s order, the deductions continues to this day, the retirees claimed.
The retirees identified the cooperatives as the Government Civil Servants Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Yaman at Kabuhayan ng Kawal at Pulis Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Finance Family Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Kooperatiba ng Pulis at Sundalo Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Pulis Kapit Bisig Multi-Purpose Cooperative, and Tagapagtaguyod Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
The complaints came from both retired and active PNP personnel, mostly from Mindanao, 20 of whom hold the rank of Police Officer 3, while 16 are PO2s,
The retirees previously said that “this flagrant abuse of the PNP’s system for automatic deductions has gone on for too long. It has placed is and our families in serious financial distress since these savings and loan associations [SLAs] impose excessive interest rate and prolonged term of loan payment.”
While the PNP continues with its automatic deductions, the retirees said the practice of automatically deducting from pension has already been declared illegal by no less than the Department of Justice.
In fact, in June 2017, the Department of Justice released an opinion clearly stating that the governing charter of SLAs, Republic Act 836 does not authorize the PNP to deduct from retiree pensions.
After the matter reached the President’s office, Go said that Año and Albayalde vowed to stop the illegal loan payment.
“Nangako si Secretary Año at si General Albayalde na titingnan nila ito at iyong mga iligal na pagkaltas. Hindi na mangyayari ito. Iyong legitimate lang na finance institutions lang ang puwedeng magbawas at sisiguraduhin nila na may matatanggap pa rin na minimum [na sahod] iyong pulis,” Go said in a radio interview.
“Ayaw na ayaw ni Pangulong mangyari na iyong [salary increase ay] mapupunta lang doon sa mga loan sharks at hindi mapakinabangan ng pulis. Kaya nga dinoble ng Pangulo [ang kanilang sahod] para may maiuwi sila sa kanilang pamilya,” he added.
The retirees have appealed to Albayalde to safeguard their welfare by ordering the PNP to immediately stop the unlawful practice of automatic deductions from their monthly pensions.
The retirees said that the PNP has become a publicly-funded collection agency for private companies, a scenario that was never sanctioned by Philippine laws.
But the PNP Finance Service said they cannot just stop the automatic loan deduction system since it favors the bigger majority of retires who still have existing loans.