Retired cops push for pension hike

The Philippine National Police Retirees Association, Inc. (PRAI) is calling on Congress to allot funds in the national budget for 2009 to increase the pension received by 47,000 retired police officers in the country.

According to retired police colonel Felicisimo Lazaro, president of the Manila’s Finest Retirees Association, Inc. and a PRAI adviser, Sections 34 and 38 of the PNP Reform Act of 1998 (Republic Act 8551) indicates the pension should be based on the prevailing base pay of active police officers.

However, Lazaro noted that the retirees receive an amount based on the rate prevailing in 2002, while former Integrated National Police (INP) retirees are only receiving pension based on the 2000 rates.

“The monthly pension of INP retirees is further reduced when the PNP deducted what we are already receiving from the GSIS (Government Service Insurance System),” he said.

Lazaro said that as an INP retiree, he receives only P7,596.73 while a PNP retiree receives P21,449. The PNP claimed it already deducted what he is already receiving from the GSIS, he said.

“This system in pension distribution inevitably becomes unjust, if not repugnant to laws, since the prejudiced INP retirees have been previously adjudged to be on equal footing with the PNP retirees,” Lazaro said.       

A Supreme Court decision entitles the less than 500 surviving INP retirees to the same benefits granted to their counterparts in the PNP, a ruling that entitles INP retirees to a pension almost three times the amount they are currently receiving.

INP police officers retired from service before the passage and implementation of RA 6975 or the PNP Law on Dec. 13, 1990. The law prevented INP retirees, whose ages now range from 68 to 96, from receiving the same pension as the PNP retirees.

The INP retirees, through Lazaro, sought a declaratory relief from the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favor.   – Nestor Etolle