The bill to grant more privileges to former presidents will benefit them when it becomes law but former Presidents Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte have been silent about the proposal.
I wonder what they’ll say about the bill filed by Sens. Bong Go, Mark Villar, Ronald dela Rosa and Francis Tolentino, and if they think they deserve the extra benefits at this time when there are urgent concerns needing government funding.
It’s not that these former presidents do not receive any benefit at all. They currently receive a yearly pension of P96,000, security detail provided by the Presidential Security Group, diplomatic passport, and franking privileges. The annual pension was set initially at P40,000 by Republic Act 5059 passed in 1967. This was raised to P96,000 when the law was updated by then President Corazon Aquino.
In 2014, then senator Antonio Trillanes IV filed a bill seeking to grant benefits and privileges to former presidents and vice presidents or their surviving spouses, amending existing laws. Trillanes cited as rationale his assessment that the benefits were “not enough to sufficiently respond to the unique position of said former high officials in the public sphere even after they leave their post.” The bill did not pass as it remained in the committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes.
The new bill, filed on Feb. 4, 2023, seeks to grant former presidents with personal security, office space and “adequate staff provided by the Office of the President” because they are expected to “perform post-presidential duties such as meeting with foreign and local dignitaries...”
The only living former presidents are Estrada, Arroyo and Duterte. Estrada served from 1998 until his ouster in 2001. Does his term fall under the definition of the bill on maintaining “the dignity of the Office of the President?”
Arroyo completed Estrada’s term and then served a full term until 2010. After her term as President, she was charged with corruption and electoral sabotage, and she stayed on hospital arrest until the Supreme Court acquitted her. Duterte, for his part, enjoyed a high approval rating during most of his presidency but he was criticized for his war on illegal drugs. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague is investigating alleged crimes against humanity in the Philippines after its judges said the Philippine government has failed to substantiate it was doing enough to investigate and prosecute killings during Duterte’s administration.
These former presidents still qualify for the existing benefits because there is nothing in the original law, RA 5059, that looks at disqualification.
What should prod a rejection of the bill will be its timing as the grant of more benefits requires funding during this time when there are many competing priorities awaiting government money.
Agriculture, health and education are among the sectors requiring financial input, making it hard to justify giving more benefits to former presidents who are not exactly struggling.