Police retirees cry 'robbery' over pension reduction

“This is plain and simple robbery.”

This was the collective cry of the retirees under the Integrated National Police (INP) when their monthly pension was reduced as the Philippine National Police deducted the amount they are currently receiving from the Government Service Insurance System.

“Our GSIS pension are our hard-earned contributions which were deducted from our salaries while we are in active service. We are mandated to receive it as pension in return to tide us in our twilight years. So where is the logic in deducting it from our retirement pay? We are being robbed,” lamented the INP retirees whose ages ranged from 68 to 96.

The Philippine National Police Retirees Association, Inc. (PRAI) is appealing to the “sense of justice, fairness and pro-poor stance of Congress, the Department of Budget and Management, PNP and National Police Commission for the inclusion in the 2009 budget the funds needed to fully implement the adjustment in pension of some 47,000 police retirees as provided by law.” 

According to retired police colonel Felicisimo Lazaro, president of the Manila’s Finest Retirees Association, Inc. and PRAI adviser on INP matters, Sections 34 and 38 of the PNP Reform Act of 1998 (RA 8551) provide for the salary level of the retirement pay of PNP personnel on the prevailing scale of the base pay of active policemen. The present base pay of active policemen is based on 2008 level rate and the pension of PNP retirees is still on 2002 level, Lazaro told The STAR. He said former Integrated National Police (INP) retirees are only receiving pension based on the 2000 level and was also reduced by 80 percent. “The monthly pension of INP retirees is further reduced when the PNP deducted what we are already receiving from the GSIS,” Lazaro lamented.

A Supreme Court decision entitles the less than 500 surviving INP retirees to the same benefits being granted to their counterparts in the PNP, the decision of which should have entitled the INP retirees to receive a pension almost three times the amount they are currently receiving.

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

The INP retirees, through Lazaro, sought a declaratory relief from the SC which rendered a judgment in their favor.