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Friday, March 29, 2024

PVAO denies dead veterans got benefits

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State auditors have found that 5,721 veterans continued to be paid monthly pensions in 2018 even though they had long died.

But the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office denied dead veterans were paid benefits and said no pension money was missing.

In its report on its audit of the PVAO for 2018 released recently, the Commission on Audit said the veterans’ office spent about P70.25 million on benefits for deceased veterans and their beneficiaries last year.

The PVAO was trying to recover the money, but as of the end of 2018 it had recovered only P33.79 million, or less than half, of the wrong payouts, the COA said.

But the recovered money had yet to be turned over to the national coffers, a violation of Republic Act No. 10964, or the 2018 General Appropriations Act, the COA said.

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The money, it said, remained in the servicing banks. 

Pensions for veterans or their qualified dependents are handled by Land Bank of the Philippines, Philippine Veterans Bank, Development Bank of the Philippines, United Coconut Planters Bank, Asia United Bank, and Maybank.

The Armed Forces and Police Savings and Loan Association Inc., Composite Wing Savings and Loan Association Inc., and Air Materiel Wing Savings and Loan Association Inc. also process pensions.

The COA directed the PVAO to immediately remit the recovered money to the Bureau of Treasury.

It also urged the veterans’ office to investigate the incorrect payments of benefits, determine who the officials and employees involved were, and “hold them liable.”

Of the deceased veterans who received pensions last year, 2,545 were actual veterans, while 3,176 were either spouses or minor dependents of veterans, the COA said.

In 2018, it said, the 5,721 dead veterans who continued to be paid pensions comprised 84.5 percent of the total 6,768 veteran deaths reported to the PVAO.

The COA said that while the majority of the deceased veterans were paid pensions up to two months after their deaths, benefits continued to be paid for some for as long as 65 months, or more than five years, after their deaths. 

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