DBM releases P1.39B for PNP retirees’ pensions

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has released P1.39 billion for the pension benefits of Philippine National Police (PNP) retirees.

Of the total, P715 million will cover the pension requirements of the additional 8,890 retired officials and personnel who have already been cleared and verified for enrolment in the Land Bank’s Automated Teller Machine (ATM) system.

The remaining P675.5 million will support the adjustment of pension perks for 15,899 retired policemen, whose names were recently mapped and verified in the PNP’s retiree database.

As of May 6 this year, 95 percent of the 63,550 entries in the PNP’s retiree database has already been cleared and validated, in line with the Aquino administration’s goal of cleansing the retiree roster under the national police force.

“Even as we push for the timely release of pension payments for our PNP retirees, we also need to ensure that public funds are being spent with full transparency and accountability. This required a thorough cleansing of the PNP’s retiree roster, which used to contain a significant number of fictional or ‘ghost’ entries. In other words, we were looking at several names that belonged to either long-deceased policemen, or those who, very simply, did not exist,” DBM Secretary Florencio Abad said.

Earlier this year, the DBM released P19.3 billion for the pension requirements of 54,660 PNP retirees after their names were properly verified for enrolment into ATM accounts.