‘Ghost’ veterans irk GMA

President Arroyo expressed concern yesterday about "ghost" war veterans who have defrauded retired soldiers and their families of millions of pesos in benefits.

Speaking before the General Assembly of the Military Veterans Foundation of the Philippines at the Folk Arts Theater in Manila, Mrs. Arroyo said mismanagement at the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) and the padding of the list of war veterans are the primary cause of the anomaly.

"We need to clean up the lists of PVAO pensioners, so that true war veterans and their families will get the benefits due them, of those literally ghost beneficiaries, most of whom are already dead but are still in the list and continue to receive pensions," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo said she has instructed Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes to put in order the PVAO and the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VVMC) – the two agencies tasked with looking after the needs of veterans.

"They (PVAO and VMMC) are undergoing adjustments," she said. "We need to change their operations in order for them to improve their services to our veterans."

Mrs. Arroyo said Congress is set to approve the P500-million fund for veterans’ benefits and the P500 increase in their monthly pension that would be included in this year’s P10.5-billion supplementary budget.

Of the 262,000 listed war veterans, 75,837 fought in World War II, while the rest are veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars, and the insurgency campaign against communist and Muslim rebels, Mrs. Arroyo added. – Marichu Villanueva