By Aura Sison

With its threat to the country’s fiscal health, the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed to push for “much-needed” reforms to military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pension benefits, including the cessation of increasing pension benefits. 

During the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte, the promise of salary increase was often stated, which he partially fulfilled. However, the timing of such proposals contradicts the current state of the nation’s finances, given the significant debt left by the pandemic response of the past administration.

According to Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, the government’s PhP 120–130 billion budget for the unformed staff pension for this year alone is no longer sustainable. 

He added that the retired MUPs currently receive an average of PhP 40,000 monthly pension, nine times higher than the PhP 4,528 retirement fees received by Social Security workers and three times higher than the PhP 13,600 pension received by workers from the Government Service Insurance System. 

The Finance Secretary also described how these monthly contributions—which are based on the employees’ salaries—are calculated. MUPs will contribute a 5% portion of their salaries for the first three years, while the national government will contribute 16%. For the following three years, MUP’s contributions increased to 7% while the state’s shares declined to 14%.

The MUP includes those from the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Public Safety College, Bureau of Prisons, Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Although Diokno stated that they have already spoken to several lawmakers who will advocate for these reforms, they would still need to pass both houses of Congress.

Thumbnail from Rappler