ILOILO CITY– A consultation and dialogue was conducted Thursday at the Police Regional Office in Western Visayas (PRO-6) to hear the concerns of uniformed personnel, especially retirees and veterans.
Led by retired police Director Leopoldo N. Bataoil, who now serves as congressman for the 2nd District of Pangasinan, the event gathered more or less 100 active, retired and veteran members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the region.
Bataoil is the chairman of the Congressional committee on veteran’s affairs and welfare; vice-chair of the committee on defense; and member of the committee on public order and safety.
In a media interview, Bataoil said that the long overdue appeal of the veterans to increase their monthly pension from PHP5,000 to PHP20,000 is still one of their major concerns.
Bataoil said that there was already a bill filed in the Congress in 2010, increasing the pension of veterans, but it was not given priority over the years. He mentioned that “budgetary constraint” has always been the reason that the bill is tabled at the Congress.
Bataoil said that there are about 8,000 veterans nationwide. He said that the government would have to spend around PHP1.6 billion for the increase of their pension.
“They are dying at the rate of 300 per month. With that, hindi aabutin ng three years, mawawalan tayo ng veterans (in about three years, we will lose our veterans,” he said,
“At least, there will be substantial increase in their pension that would really be a big help for them especially for their maintenance,” he added.
Initially, Bataoil said that they have already found a source of fund for the increase of pension of veterans.
“One of the sources of fund that we have seen is the proper utilization and investment of properties of veterans. There are prime properties of veterans particularly in Taguig in Manila, rented by big companies for warehousing purposes or commercial purposes,” he said,
“But it is not being managed properly, whatever they earn, it goes to general fund and it is benefiting the veterans in some other way like maintenance of memorial hospital and medical mission,” he added.
Further, he said that there is also a bill filed before the Congress, which will provide proper management for all those properties and for rental or sale of prime properties. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
