MANILA, Philippines - Interior Secretary Mar Roxas II on Thursday assured families and relatives of the 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) who were killed in Mamasapano, Maguindanao that they will quickly get the full benefits in full.
Roxas made the announcement during the recent Senate hearing on Mamasapano that the relatives had received benefits from the Philippine National Police's (PNP) Special Assistance Fund.
President Aquino personally distributed P250,000 to each family of the 44 commandos during a recent meeting.
A total of P 66.37 million coming from different government agencies will be given to the families of SAF commandos.
To date, more than half of the total fund or P 34.57 million has been given to the families. The remaining P 31.8 million is in process and will be given to the claimant upon completion of necessary documents.
Apart from this, each family will also receive a monthly pension from the PNP and the National Police Commission.
Roxas also guaranteed the dependents of the SAF members that the PNP has funds for the scholarships of the orphaned children.
"We understand that they may have concern that next year or two years from now, or five years from now, when my two-year old is ready to enter school, baka magkalimutan so we will issue such documents from the one-stop shop," he added.
To hasten the release of the funds, Roxas said the PNP has assigned attending personnel to process the papers of the slain SAF members and see to it their families will get the money the soonest time possible.
He added that these personnel have been assigned to work exclusively in processing these documents to ensure that the families will get their benefits not only from the PNP but from other government agencies as well.
Roxas said special attention is being given to the needs of the families living outside of the National Capital Region, particularly those from distant provinces.
"They no longer need to come to Manila for follow ups. It is the job of the PNP to ensure that there will be no delay in processing their papers," Roxas said.