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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Amid controversies, Makabayan bloc out to scrutinize MUP pension budget for 2024

Amid controversies, Makabayan bloc out to scrutinize MUP pension budget for 2024

Published Jul 30, 2023 04:45 am
From left to right: Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, and Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas





Citing the million-peso overpayment and underpayment in military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pension last year, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro says she and the rest of the Makabayan bloc will "carefully scrutinize" the pension budget in the House of Representatives. This, as the proposed P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2024 is expected to be submitted to the House of Representatives this week. The submission of the annual spending plan paves the way for the start of the laborious budget deliberations by the House Committee on Appropriations. The panel is chaired by Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co. "Talagang bubusisiin namin ang MUP pension budget dahil ayon nga sa Department of Budget and Management (DBM) ay aabot ito ng P300 bilyon sa 2024 budget tapos pumasok pa ngayon ang mga isyu na maaari pa daw makuha ang pensyon ng mga drug cops at ang overpayment/underpayment ng pensyon," said the teacher-solon. (We will really scrutinize the MUP pension budget since according to the DBM, it will reach P300 billion in 2024. On top of this are the overpayment/underpayment and the issue that the drug cops may still get their pension.) Castro noted that the Commission on Audit (COA) had instructed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to reconcile and update its Pension Management Information System (PenMIS). This, after it noted discrepancies in the list of pensioners, resulting in P17.095 million in overpayment and P2.301 million in underpayment last year. In the same audit report, the COA also called out the AFP over its failure to timely tag and delete from the pension payroll a total 1,026 delinquent pensioners who were remiss or delayed in giving updates on their status for several months to more than a year. “These resulted in the continuous payment to unverified pensioners of monthly pension benefits totaling P159.420 million,” the COA said. Castro noted that, "Even if the AFP management said that of the 1,026 pensioners cited by the auditors, 364 were already deleted from the pensioner payroll, millions of taxpayer's funds are still being spent without being sure if they are indeed going to deserving pensioners." The two other Makabayan solons in the House are Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel.

Related Tags

House of Representatives MUP MUP pension Makabayan bloc
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