Deepening US-Philippine alliance

In a lunchtime discussion recently where retired military and businessmen were present, along with some retired legislators and former government officials, the crux of the matter was established as not a question of whether the pensions are deserved or not, but whether our government can raise the funds for it or not.

The private sector SSS is worried sick about its actuarial life, even as current president Rolando Macasaet is trying his best to make life better for members through recent measures as reducing the service fees charged by accredited collecting banks and online payment channels.

The GSIS which Macasaet headed during the last three years of the Duterte administration is in better actuarial shape, but it is not in a position to absorb the MUP, humongous as the financial requirement is.

SSS and GSIS retirees receive an average monthly pension of 4,528 up to 13, 600 pesos each, while the MUP average is 40,049 pesos each. The disparities are so huge.

The MUP includes officers and enlisted personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine National Police, Philippine Public Safety College, Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Corrections.

The “wa-is” among us would even comment that PNP (and perhaps BuCor personnel) should no longer receive the largesse after they retire, considering how much hay they made while the sun shone on their service or disservice. An observation which is unfair to the upright members of an institution whose public image has been so long tainted, save perhaps for a few short years under the stewardship of one Ping Lacson.

It is similar to the joke about Bureau of Customs personnel who do not care about their salaries because each Friday is “payday” for hierarchical graft.

The MUP fiscal nightmare ballooned when PRRD increased the salaries of uniformed personnel in 2018, when today’s DOF Sec. Ben Diokno was the DBM secretary, and a member of the economic team then led by Sec. Sonny Dominguez.

But PRRD was so concerned about the plight of uniformed personnel who risk their