Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri, at the resumption of the plenary session in this file photo taken on November 7, 2022. Senate PRIB file photo / Joseph Vidal
MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri wants the retirement fund of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to be run by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
According to Zubiri on Wednesday, the retirement fund of veterans is sourced from the taxpayers’ contributions.
While veterans deserve a huge pension, Zubiri said there is an apparent “mismanagement of funds.”
“Of course naman they deserve [a big pension] kasi at one point in their life, pinaglaban naman nila ‘yung ating bansa and they risk their lives,” Zubiri said in a Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.
(Of course, they deserve a big pension because they fought for our country and risked their lives at one point in their life.)
“Pero if you ask me, that is sort of like mismanagement of funds because what should be done is similar to GSIS or SSS [Social Security System] kung saan may pension fund po tayo na nag-i-invest sa iba’t ibang mga income-generating projects or programs para sa ganu’n ‘yung kanilang pondo ay self-financed,” he explained.
(But, if you ask me, that is sort of like mismanagement of funds because what should be done is similar to GSIS or SSS wherein a pension fund is being invested in various income-generating projects or programs so that their funds will be self-financed.)
Zubiri added: “Ako [I], personally, we can create the AFP retirement fund and put it as an attached agency of the GSIS, run by the GSIS.”
The senator vowed that they would fix it as it may impact the country’s national fund.
“We have to fix that kasi kung hindi [because if not], it will balloon our deficit and our expenses in the national budget. It has to be done by this administration, particularly this Congress. Committed po kami diyan [We are committed to that],” he said.
Last year, Senator Jinggoy Estrada filed a measure seeking to raise the disability pension of military veterans. He flagged the “grave injustice” to military veterans as their monthly disability pension is now worth P287.