DOF to fasttrack overhaul of military pension fund

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has asked the Department of Finance (DOF) and other concerned agencies to fasttrack the formulation of a masterplan to overhaul the military’s pension system, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said.

In an interview, Dominguez said the DOF’s consultant, former Social Security System chief actuary George Ongkeko, recently made a presentation to the President, as well as the secretaries of the Department of National Defense (DND), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Department of Transportation (DOTr) on the country’s military pension scheme.

He said Ongkeko laid out the problem of the ballooning military pension cost, as well as the proposed solutions to address the issue.

Dominguez said the agencies, together with the DOF, need to coordinate and discuss the mechanism to solve the problem.

“We have to sit down together to work out the mechanism for solving this problem. The President asked us to move forward quickly and we have to make another presentation to him on the progress by the end of August,” the finance chief said.

According to Dominguez, the reforms proposed for the military pension system involve turning over some of the assets of the agencies to set up a pension fund for armed personnel.