Fair and equitable pension system

THINK about this: If, according to National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon, the unfunded liabilities of the Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUP) pension system currently amounts to around P9.6 trillion or 53.4 percent of the 2020 gross domestic product (GDP) and is expected to balloon further in the succeeding years, shouldn’t the government take decisive steps to remedy the situation?

That’s precisely the objective of a consultation roadshow organized by a technical working group (TWG) that will craft a measure that’s acceptable to stakeholders.

The consultation will gather inputs from officers and personnel of the armed forces, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Public Safety College, Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Corrections.

This is a democratic way of addressing the issue.

The MUP pension system came under intense scrutiny after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised an alert on rising government liabilities to pensions of MUP, which the multilateral lender said might impact negatively on spending for social and infrastructure projects. The IMF noted that MUP pensions are indexed

The AFP has indicated that it is ‘amenable and open’ to modifications in the pension system so long as these are fair and equitable to current wages and “kind of going up very fast,” and could “eat a large share of the national budget if it is not addressed and reformed.”