2 PNP officials, 6 others face raps over pension scam

MANILA, Philippines - A police superintendent, a police chief inspector and six others are now facing charges of graft after being implicated in a fake police pensioners scam.

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Senior Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr. said they are waiting for the findings of the Office of the Ombudsman on the cases of graft and corrupt practices filed against the police officers.

He said the police officers, including a superintendent and a chief inspector, have been relieved from their post pending resolution of the case.

“Last April 25, the Police Retiree Benefits Service and the Task Force Fake Pensioner led the investigators to the Ombudsman to file cases of violation of malversation of public funds and violation of Republic Act 3019 or the anti-graft and corrupt practices act against the police personnel,” Cerbo added.

PNP chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome said the PNP is continuously updating the current master list of 60,621 PNP and pensioners from the defunct Philippine Constabulary/Integrated National Police (PC/INP) to maintain the integrity of the police pension payroll.

Bartolome said the master list of 60,621 pensioners has been cleansed and purged of unwanted entries based on the template required by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Bartolome said the updated master list contains current pension accounts of PNP and PC/INP pensioners and beneficiaries and surviving spouses of deceased personnel and minor surviving children.

Bartolome said a Memorandum of Agreement has been forged with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) for the full automation of the pension payroll system that could be withdrawn by ATM from any LBP branch.

“Simultaneous processing is underway to enroll all pensioners in the ATM payroll thru LBP regional branches nationwide,” Bartolome said.

Effective June 1, 2012, PNP and PC/INP pensioners started receiving adjusted pensions equivalent to the salary rate of active police personnel.

The DBM released P1.125 million to support the pension adjustment of PNP and PC/INP pensioners based on the 2nd Tranche of the Salary Standardization Law III.

At the same time, DBM recommended procedural reforms to facilitate cleansing of the roster of pensioners as a requirement for further release of funds for succeeding pension adjustments.

Among the recommended procedural reforms initiated by the PNP are the implementation of the ATM pension system, verification of data on the death and change of status of pensioners with the National Statistics Office, and cleansing of the pension master list.