Storm is brewing in the ranks of Philippine National Police personnel and retirees. If the present controversies affecting them are not properly looked into and handled, such dangerous unrest if not timely foiled may lead to a destabilized governance that no administration can ill afford to happen.
When the DILG Secretary required the high-level PNP officers from the rank of full colonel to general to tender their courtesy resignations to remove about 10 police officers involved in the illegal drug trade, there was a ripple of silent but angry protest. For one, such a requirement was a violation of their security of tenure. For another, it’s like burning an entire house to get rid of a few rats.
Then following an alleged discovery of a conspiracy of 49 police officers including two generals to cover up a recycling of confiscated shabu, the DILG Secretary asked the two aforementioned officers to file their leave of absence or face suspension. The shocked generals readily complied but not before calling a press conference to air their hurt and indignation against the DILG top honcho.
In a startling and unexpected demonstration of defiance, the usually mild-mannered and soft-spoken PNP chief, General Rodolfo Azurin Jr., called out on his boss not to hastily implicate the two generals into the alleged cover-up and vouched for the integrity of his subordinate ranking officers.
We now have the sorry spectacle of the PNP chief and two ranking generals disputing the allegations of their boss and calling him out to be fair.
Another serious concern that is rocking the PNP is its retiree pension which the Secretary of Finance wants to be degraded and reduced. Instead of upgrading the retirement pension of those in the non-military service and putting them at par with that of military pensioners, the highest salary-receiving government official of the land is obsessed with reducing the benefits of the former thereby bringing in the winds of discontent and outrage from them.
This column is giving a space to the letter, quoted hereunder, of a retired general who is taking the cudgels for this disgruntled sector of our society, as it mirrors their sentiment, to wit:
“05 April 2023
Subject: Military Pension
To: Dr. Benjamin E. Diokno
Secretary, Department of Finance
DOF Building, BSP Complex
Roxas Boulevard
Manila
Dear Secretary Diokno,
Please allow me to respond to your assertions on the MUP pension system.
- You said the pension scheme is ridiculous because personnel in the active service can optionally retire after completing 20 years of service and receive a pension for 50 years because they live up to 90.
The pension scheme is not ridiculous but your assertion is. That pension benefit you refer to was vested by law. Pension after 20 years of service, once approved by the competent authority, is the norm even in most foreign militaries. Also, living up to 90 is a blessing and pensioners must not be faulted for it. Discipline explains it.
- You compared military pensions with those of civilians, where military men do not contribute to it while civilians do.
Your comparison is wrong. The military is a service where one’s life is the capital, 24 hours a day, in war or peace. In fact, it is not termed pension in the AFP retirement law. It is called Military Retirement Pay. When they retire, they are only placed on the Retired List and may be recalled back to active service during a war or other national contingencies. Also, almost all militaries around the world, including those in the USA, do not contribute to their pension.
(To be continued)