Retired policemen assured of pension benefits

MALACANANG assured Thursday the release of pension benefits for retired personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Funds for the pension benefits of some 62,000 retirees are already available, said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, who relayed the information from Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

However, Lacierda said the release of the funds will depend on the PNP’s submission of its “cleansed pension roster,” which is an updated master list of eligible and qualified retirees.

“We are aware that, at this point, the process of cleaning the pensioners’ list is 80 percent complete. This means that of the 62,000 pensioners about 50,000 pensioners have been vetted and they already have registered ATM accounts,” Lacierda said.

He noted that the delay of release of pension in the past was due to the refusal of some retirees to secure automated teller machine (ATM) accounts, which is required by the PNP.

He said having ATM accounts is an effective way of cleaning up the pensioners’ roster especially by identifying those who were already dead.

“Our basis for the release will still be the number of pensioners with registered ATM accounts…PNP has been requested to make sure to vet the list of pensioners,” he said. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)