Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has filed a bill pushing for the grant of survivorship benefits to the members of the National Prosecution Service (NPS).
In filing Senate Bill No. 1865, Angara said it is important to honor the indispensable role of prosecutors in the country’s criminal justice system considering the heavy workload and the personal risks they encounter due to the dangerous nature of their work.
Unlike their counterparts in the Office of the Ombudsman or the Judiciary, Angara pointed out retired prosecutors have no survivorship benefits even though the nature of their work is the same.
Angara said the grant of survivorship benefits to the members of the NPS “is but a small gesture of our appreciation of the work that they are doing in the service of the country.”
“The prosecutors in the NPS discharge a vital and indispensable role in our criminal justice system. They assume the immense task of maintaining and upholding the rule of law and carry the burden of prosecuting offenders as they probe their case through the demanding process inherent in the entire judicial system,” Angara said in the explanatory note of the bill.
“It is about time that NPS prosecutors also be granted the same benefits as a recognition of the sacrifice they have made and continue to make, risking personal safety and to give assurance to their families that when they die, the State shall be there to take care of those that they leave behind,” he further stated in the measure.
The senator pointed out one of the most recent attacks against prosecutors was in July this year when Jovencio Senados, the inquest division chief of the Manila City Prosecutor’s Office was shot dead by still unidentified assailants on his way to work.
Under the bill, the surviving legitimate spouse and dependent children of the deceased prosecutor would be entitled to receive all the retirement benefits that a retired member of the NPS is already receiving in case he dies.
In case of death of an NPS member who is already eligible to retire, he said the same survivorship benefits would also be granted to the surviving legitimate spouse and dependent children.
The bill recognizes both legitimate and illegitimate children or adopted children who are chiefly reliant on the deceased member of the NPS, are not over 21 years of age, unmarried and not gainfully employed or if they are incapable of self-support because of mental or physical defect as dependents.
Retirement benefits on the surviving spouse would be provided until he or she remarries.
In case the deceased NPS member has no surviving spouse or dependent children, the retirement benefits would be given to the parents.
The bill also provides for a retroactive application to include members of the NPS who died one year prior to its effectivity the law.
“With this bill, we want to send a clear message that the State takes care of its own especially those who have sacrificed so much to serve its people,” Angara stressed.