BCDA eyes sharing 25% of sale from Clark properties to AFP pension system

BCDA President/CEO Joshua M. Bingcang discusses the development projects inside the Clark Freeport Zone during the Build Better More Infratrucuture Forum at the New Clark City in Tarlac. (photo: BCDA)
Amid the issue hounding the pension system for the military and other uniformed services of the government, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) is eyeing allocating a large portion from the sale of properties inside the Clark Freeport Zone.
Joshua M. Bingcang, BCDA president and chief executive officer, said that based on their proposal for the amendment of the Republic Act 7227, or the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992, a total of 25 percent of the sale from Clark assets will go to the pension system of members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
“For the sale of properties inside Clark, we proposed in our bill that 25 percent will go to the pension fund of the military. We want to help because this is a big headache for the (Department of) Finance, this kind of responsibility of the government,” said Bingcang during the Build Better More Infrastructure Forum at New Clark City in Tarlac.
“That’s where we want to help, to ensure that our soldiers, who spent a lot of years in the battlefield, will be taken care of through their pension system by allocating at least 25 percent of our revenues from the sale of the proceeds inside Clark,” he added.
But Bingcang said the proposed 25 percent allocation only covers the sale of residential properties inside Clark, a former American military base.
The sale of properties inside Clark is part of the conversion of lands from leasehold to freehold, the latter is on residential properties which is being developed as part of the efforts to prepare the houses of workers once the former US military base is fully developed.
The residential area covers mostly condominium units, part of that housing was what the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD) initiated for the construction of 50,000 housing units inside Clark.
The military pension system, including that of the police and other uniformed service, has been the subject of a debate since last year after then Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno proposed to have soldiers and policemen contribute for their pension like other government employees.
The pension of soldiers and other uniformed personnel is fully shouldered by the national government and over the years, it has become a problem due to the sustainability issue of yearly allocation for their pension.
The BCDA was mandated to help in the modernization of the AFP, through at least 40 percent share of their revenue that is annually being turned over to the national treasury.