Noy urged: Approve retirement pay for village execs, workers

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino is being urged to approve a bill seeking to grant retirement benefits to barangay officials and employees.

The benefit aims to recognize the efforts and contribution of village officials and employees to the country.

Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., principal author of the bill, said the measure has been submitted to the President for signing.

“The Senate and the House (of Representatives) have approved the bill. I hope the President would sign it into law as soon as possible,” Marcos said.

The bill seeks to provide a retirement pay of P100,000 for each qualified village chief, P80,000 for each member of the barangay council and P50,000 each for barangay treasurer, secretary, watchmen, peace officers, and health and daycare workers.

Marcos said that village officials and workers are delivering basic and other services to the public, yet they are only receiving measly benefits.

A barangay official or worker must be at least 60 years old and has served for at least nine years in order to be able to qualify for the retirement benefit.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government’s national barangay operations office has identified 95,616 village officials and workers who are qualified to receive the benefit as of June 2013.

The country has at least 1.8 million village officials and workers.

The government needs P5.2 billion to pay for the retirement pay of the initial number of qualified officials and workers.