Unqualified pensioners still getting paid --- PNP Chief
Published Jun 1, 2020 12:00 am
By Aaron Recuenco
More than 1,000 unqualified pensioners have been continuously receiving money from the Philippine National Police (PNP) Pension Fund, a top police official disclosed on Monday.
PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa
(NCRPO PIO / MANILA BULLETIN) PNP Chief General Archie Gamboa said that he had already ordered a massive purging of unqualified pensioners in order to ensure that only rightful claimants would receive the monthly pension from the government. “Cases will be filed against individuals and groups perpetrating these fraudulent claims. The PNP will exhaust all legal means to recover lost pension funds paid to ineligible claimants,” he added. Based on the data of the PNP, the unqualified claimants include those who have already remarried, those who have already reached an age which excludes them from receiving the pension, and those who are claiming the pension although the rightful claimants are already deceased. “They are already ineligible based on grounds stipulated under the mandate of the Police Retirement Benefits Administration Service (PRBS),” said Gamboa. Gamboa earlier ordered the Regional Directors of the 18 Police Regional Offices (PROs) to take the lead role in the nationwide accounting of more than 21,000 pensioners who were not able to update their status in 2019 and also failed to avail of the initial nationwide accounting which started last February. The discrepancy, however, stemmed from the failure of the PNP regional offices to regularly update the records of pensioners. This was further aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic as the regional offices failed to personally check the claimants. Since May 18, 2020, a total of 7,388 pensioners were accounted for by Police Regional Offices’ track-care teams; 1,027 of which were found to be no longer eligible for claims. Among those disqualified were beneficiaries who died in 2012 or have re-married as far back as 2003 and continued to claim pension. The whereabouts of some 1,023 beneficiaries can no longer be established while eleven names were found to have been duplicate entries. As an initial action, Gamboa said the accounts of the disqualified and unaccounted pensioners with Land Bank, through which they receive their benefits, have been tagged and put on hold, and deleted from the pensioner alphabetical list. “This means that pensions will continue to be credited in these Landbank pension accounts but these funds can not be withdrawn until such time that the account owner has updated their status with PRBS,” said Gamboa. The pensioner track-care teams are still seeking 10,260 unaccounted beneficiaries before the deadline lapses on June 7.
PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa(NCRPO PIO / MANILA BULLETIN) PNP Chief General Archie Gamboa said that he had already ordered a massive purging of unqualified pensioners in order to ensure that only rightful claimants would receive the monthly pension from the government. “Cases will be filed against individuals and groups perpetrating these fraudulent claims. The PNP will exhaust all legal means to recover lost pension funds paid to ineligible claimants,” he added. Based on the data of the PNP, the unqualified claimants include those who have already remarried, those who have already reached an age which excludes them from receiving the pension, and those who are claiming the pension although the rightful claimants are already deceased. “They are already ineligible based on grounds stipulated under the mandate of the Police Retirement Benefits Administration Service (PRBS),” said Gamboa. Gamboa earlier ordered the Regional Directors of the 18 Police Regional Offices (PROs) to take the lead role in the nationwide accounting of more than 21,000 pensioners who were not able to update their status in 2019 and also failed to avail of the initial nationwide accounting which started last February. The discrepancy, however, stemmed from the failure of the PNP regional offices to regularly update the records of pensioners. This was further aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic as the regional offices failed to personally check the claimants. Since May 18, 2020, a total of 7,388 pensioners were accounted for by Police Regional Offices’ track-care teams; 1,027 of which were found to be no longer eligible for claims. Among those disqualified were beneficiaries who died in 2012 or have re-married as far back as 2003 and continued to claim pension. The whereabouts of some 1,023 beneficiaries can no longer be established while eleven names were found to have been duplicate entries. As an initial action, Gamboa said the accounts of the disqualified and unaccounted pensioners with Land Bank, through which they receive their benefits, have been tagged and put on hold, and deleted from the pensioner alphabetical list. “This means that pensions will continue to be credited in these Landbank pension accounts but these funds can not be withdrawn until such time that the account owner has updated their status with PRBS,” said Gamboa. The pensioner track-care teams are still seeking 10,260 unaccounted beneficiaries before the deadline lapses on June 7.