Aquilino Pimentel III—SENATE PRIB
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Sunday urged the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to formulate new rules that would allow elected public officials and their staff to continue paying for their pension fund contributions even after they leave public office.
Pimentel pointed out that local officials are only allowed by law to serve three consecutive three-year terms, or a total of nine years, while senators may stay in office for two consecutive six-year terms, or 12 years.
However, under Republic Act No. 8291, or the amended GSIS charter, elective officials are not eligible to receive retirement benefits because government workers are required to have served a minimum of 15 years to be eligible for a pension and other GSIS benefits.
The Constitution and the election law, however, do not prohibit them from seeking other elective or appointive posts.
“I am saddened to learn that there are so many elected officials and public servants holding temporary and coterminous status on the national and local levels who would retire without a retirement fund and pension only because they had not met the service requirement,” Pimentel said in a statement.
“That provision … is very unfair for government employees and elected officials who fall short of the minimum 15-year service required under the law,” he added.
The senator said this “glaring disparity” between the term limits and the minimum service requirement seemed “to disregard the service rendered by elected officials and their staff.”
To remedy this, Pimentel said elected officials and their personnel should be allowed to continue paying for their monthly contributions as voluntary members of GSIS.
The government should make “public service an attractive career” for Filipinos, according to the senator.
“Some of these officials and their staff even left their high-paying jobs in the private sector to join the government service,” Pimentel noted. INQ