War vets’ pension to rise to P20,000

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The old-age pension for World War II veterans will be increased from P5,000 to P20,000, a top official of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) said here on Thursday.

Ernesto Carolina, PVAO administrator, said the House committee on veterans affairs has approved the pension hike, which may be implemented next year.

“The objective of our congressmen is to have this approved within this year so that it can be immediately given to the veterans, who are already aging,” said Carolina, shortly after his speech at the 7th Veterans’ Day celebration that coincided with the 69th Lingayen Gulf Landings anniversary.

In Pangasinan alone, he said his office has identified about 8,000 pensioners, including 759 war veterans, where five of them are aged 100 years and above.

The province’s oldest living war veteran is 103-year-old Bonifacio Agacer of Barangay (village) Salud in Natividad town.

“Our veterans from the Armed Forces [of the Philippines], at least, have retirement pensions. But our World War II veterans were former guerrilla fighters and they do not have retirement pensions,” Carolina said.

He said the veterans’ situation has continued to improve because of the support of President Aquino.

“The President has been able to pay some P8.7 billion arrears incurred by past administrations for the veterans’ total administrative disability (TAD),” Carolina said.

Under the law, a veteran’s TAD benefit amounts to P1,700 a month while the partial administrative disability pension is P1,200 a month. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon