Senate OKs bill granting benefits to surviving family members of deceased OSG execs

The Senate building at the GSIS Complex in Pasay City (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

The Senate has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to grant survivorship benefits to families of officials from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) with 20 affirmative votes, zero negative and zero abstention.

Senate Bill No. 453, which seeks to upgrade the retirement benefits of the OSG officials, also provided benefits to the surviving “legitimate spouse or dependent children” of a deceased retired Solicitor General, Assistant Solicitor General, Senior State Solicitor General or State Solicitor of the OSG.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, author and sponsored of the bill, said that the bill is intended to “recognize and honor” the members of the OSG.

“These benefits are intended to recognize and honor members of the Office of the Solicitor General, many of whom have rendered decades, if not a lifetime, of service to our people, and, hopefully, assist their family members who will be left behind in their passing,” Trillanes, who is also the chair of the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation, said.

“The above-mentioned immediate family members shall be entitled to receive, on a monthly basis, all the retirement benefits due to the OSG official at the time of death under the provisions of the applicable retirement laws then in force,” Trillanes said.

He also noted that dependents shall receive that benefits “until said surviving legitimate spouse remarries or when the dependent children marry or comes of age.” /jpv