By Jose Cielito Reganit/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday thanked President Rodrigo Duterte after the Department of Budget and Management released the pension requirements of retired military and uniformed personnel (MUP).
“On behalf of the 220,000 MUP retirees, let me say a lifetime ‘Thank you’ to PRRD for Joint Resolution No 1. No other President has shown such concern for those who served and offered their lives for country and people. All we have to do is continue breathing for as long as we can,” Lacson said on his Twitter account.
Congress Joint Resolution No. 1 authorizes an increase in the base pay of military and other uniformed personnel in the government, fulfilling Duterte’s promise of increasing the base pay of all MUP.
Lacson, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1971, is one of the principal authors of the Joint Resolution.
Earlier this week, the DBM released the pension requirements of retired MUP under the Armed Forces of the Philippines-General Headquarters (AFP-GHQ), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
The DBM said it released PHP29.9 billion to the AFP-GHQ, PHP21.7 billion to the PNP, PHP 1.9 billion to the BFP, and around PHP 731 million to the BJMP.
It added that the release order for uniformed personnel of the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority shall be issued upon its submission of the required Special Budget Request to the DBM.
“Accordingly, the recently released amounts already include the adjustment of the pension of the retired MUPs as indexed to the base pay scale of MUP in the active service covering the period June to December 2019 based on the available funds as certified by the Bureau of the Treasury,” the DBM said.
The indexation of pensions to the current base pay scale was suspended in 2018, also under Joint Resolution No. 1, which states that “pending the review of the current MUP pension system by the Legislative and Executive branches of the government… the indexation of the pension of retired MUP with the base pay of those in the active service shall be suspended with respect to the base pay increase authorized in this Joint Resolution.”
The resolution, however, also provided that the suspension of the indexation to the current base pay scale for MUP would be lifted come January 1, 2019, or if a pension reform law is already implemented.
“This suspension shall be automatically lifted on January 1, 2019, or upon the effectivity of a pension reform law, whichever comes earlier,” the DBM said.
Duterte has certified as urgent the MUP Pension Reform Bill last February.
For the latest updates about this story, visit the Philippine News Agency website
