Revised retirement age eyed for cops, teachers

MANILA, Philippines — Senators are pushing for measures to extend the retirement age for police officers from 56 to 57 years while reducing the retirement age for teachers from 65 to 60 years.

Sen. Imee Marcos filed Senate Bill 2758, amending section 39 of Republic Act 6975, otherwise known as the “Department of the Interior and Local Government act of 1990.”

“This bill proposes to increase the compulsory retirement age of PNP (Philippine National Police) officers and personnel from 56 to 57 years old, similar to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), to ensure continuity and stability in the leadership and excellence in the PNP,” Marcos said in an explanatory note.

At present, the mandatory retirement age of police officers is set at 56 years.

Marcos said there are proposals to raise the police age of compulsory retirement due to the following reasons: increased life expectancy rates based on various studies, extending the police officers’ retirement age will ensure more experienced men at the helm of the PNP and members of the police force aged 57 are still agile and physically fit to accomplish their duties, among others.

Undersecretary for Police Affairs Isagani Nerez, in his speech before the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office last March, also said that the “proposed increase by a year of the PNP retirement age will allow law enforcers to serve the public further.”

Meanwhile, Senate President Francis Escudero filed Senate Bill 58, an act lowering the compulsory retirement age of employees of the Department of Education (DepEd) from 65 years to 60 years.

If enacted into law, Escudero said the proposed legislation will benefit hundreds and thousands of retirable DepEd personnel, both teaching and non-teaching, who would want to spend the prime of their lives doing occupations other than their usual functions in government.

“The present system at the DepEd needs skills updating and professional advancement of their personnel in order that services rendered at the department would be restructured and modernized yet perpetual,” he noted.

The Senate President said the measure shall also open the doors of opportunities to young teachers and non-teaching aspirants for the jobs at the education department.