PAG-ASA ISLAND, Kalayaan — Armed Forces of the Philippines chief-of-staff Andres Centino said Thursday he is leaving it up to Congress to decide on proposed reforms to the pensions of military and uniformed personnel.
Speaking to reporters here, Centino said he tells troops during visits across the country to continue doing their jobs as they are “well-compensated.”
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Salaries for troops were raised in 2018 to from P29,668 a month for a private to P149,785 a month for a general.
“Whatever decisions our lawmakers will be doing, that is for the betterment not just of the Armed Forces, but the whole country,” he said. “We are sensitive also to that.”
Defense officer-in-charge Carlito Galvez Jr. said this month that while his department and the AFP “fully support” the enactment of laws to address issues hounding the pension system, they appeal that “the morale and welfare of our soldiers be given due weight in this deliberation.”
Economic managers have proposed that all active and new recruits will be required to contribute towards their pension fund.
Pensions will no longer be indexed to the salaries of active personnel and pensions will be handed out starting at 57 years old.
But even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is supposedly wary about the impacts of these proposed reforms on the morale of uniformed personnel, defense officer-in-charge Carlito Galvez Jr. claimed.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who was also part of the economic team during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte that doubled the salaries of MUPs which caused pensions to balloon as well, said the current pension system is “not sustainable” and may lead the country to a “fiscal collapse.”
Bills seeking to overhaul the pension system for MUPs remain pending at the defense panels of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Senate defense committee chairperson Sen. Jinggoy Estrada sent the pension reform bills to a technical working group after just one hearing.
He said, however, that the proposal cannot be rushed as he called on the uniformed services and economic managers to coordinate with each other to thresh out their issues.