Purisima may find it hard to claim retirement benefits due to pending case–PNP

Police Director General Alan Purisima might have a hard time getting his retirement benefits due to a pending case he is facing.

Purisima, who resigned last February at the height of the controversy over the Mamasapano incident, is set to retire in November. He was suspended for six months in December last year by the Office of the Ombudsman over a questionable deal with a courier service firm.

He will report back for duty when his suspension ends on June 10.

But Philippine National Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Bartolome Tobias said the resigned PNP chief might encounter difficulty in claiming his retirement benefits.

Tobias said in a media briefing Friday that Purisima could only receive his retirement benefits if someone of equivalent rank or higher within the PNP would serve as his guarantor. Purisima holds a four-star rank.

“The PNP has an existing policy that when a police officer has a case–a serious case–he could only claim his benefits if he has a guarantor. Assuming he retires in November and his case isn’t settled yet, he will not receive his benefits,” Tobias said.

Because of this, Tobias said PNP will revisit its policies on releasing benefits for police retirees with four-star ranks.

“The PNP will look into possible remedies because this is a very unique or peculiar situation. It’s the first time this happened in PNP,” he added.

Under a PNP circular dated January 7, 2002, no payment of retirement benefits should be made unless a PNP personnel of equal rank or higher than that of the retiree and with at least 5 years more in the service before compulsory retirement will act as his guarantor.

But he said a guarantor has to agree to be one. He added that the PNP won’t appoint a guarantor and a retiree can’t decide on who he wants as guarantor.

Police officers facing charges are disqualified from receiving the lump sum of retirement benefits. They are only entitled to receive “outright pension” which is released monthly.

Based on the latest PNP record, there are 45 commissioned and 110 non-commissioned officers who have pending cases. AU