“Needless to say, however, all retirees are indeed grateful for the increase”
The announcement by PBBM increasing the pay of active personnel in our uniformed services is not only a piece of good news for them but also for us pensioners from the various uniformed services.
But we hope it will also be implemented at the same time as those in the active services for us to enjoy the full benefits while still around.
To many retirees, it is only the pension that maybe keeping them above water due to the ever increasing cost of living in the country.
This is most especially true to those veterans and other retirees who are in their middle or late 70s who have no other income except their pensions. For this reason, I am hoping that an official from the Palace reads this piece and work out the possibility of making an exception so that the whole 15 percent increase can be implemented in one tranche for those over 70 years old effective this Jan. 2026.
Given that the average life expectancy of Filipino males is just about 71 years, many pensioners may not live long enough to enjoy the full benefits of the pension if they have to wait too for the full implementation.
Needless to say, however, all retirees are indeed grateful for the increase.
This action of PBBM is not only justified but long overdue for many reasons.
Unlike our counterparts from the non-uniformed services, MUPs (military and uniformed personnel) do not have fix hours of work and often work long hours far beyond the standard eight-hour workload of our civilian counterparts without any overtime pay.
Traditional family life for MUPs can also oftentimes easily disrupted due to the dictates of duties. It takes only an order for them to be separated from their loved ones when for example they are sent away for months of operations.
Most of all, the MUPs are the only ones wherein the government is authorized by law to order them to perform duties that could result in their early deaths or serious disability like that Philippine Army blind officer who was recently recalled by PBBM to return to active duty.
This is not to say that our civilian counterparts are not making their own important contributions to the country because they are and should also be recognized.
This is because everyone who only depends on government pay and pension all suffer from the effects of inflation which eats up the purchasing power of what they receive and therefore must have their emoluments adjusted regularly to keep up with cost of living expenses.
The effort to increase MUP pay started several months ago initiated by a group of retirees from the military and police bonding together to see if the Palace was receptive to increasing the base pay of MUPs.
It was not due to pressure on the President resulting from those unfounded destabilization stories that made him abruptly increase MUP pay.
After a series of discussions, a draft letter was apparently prepared and was passed around for more suggestions.
Then from what I was told, this letter ended with Senator Ping Lacson who is a military retiree himself who made some amendments before the letter was sent to the office of then Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin thru someone in the Palace close to him.
That letter took months to process until finally being announced by the President recently.
There is therefore absolutely no truth to what some are saying that the increase is to appease the restless military.
As the AFP Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner has been saying for months, the AFP will support the duly constituted authority and will not support any extrajudicial action to change the government.
If there is anything that this flood control corruption scandal has shown all of us, it is that there is actually plenty of money for the government to improve the quality of life of all government workers whether they are MUP or civilian.
What overworked government workers have been receiving is just pittance compared to the billions or even trillions stolen by corrupt lawmakers and other government executives. It is so unconscionable.
It is now time to increase the pay of those in the other branches of government like teachers and nurses who have been praying for an increase in their salaries for a long time.
