‘Good sound byte’ – Lacson on Dela Rosa’s promise of ‘quadruple’ pay to police retirees

“Good sound byte. The hardest part is doing the math.”

This was the reaction of Senator Panfilo Lacson over Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s promise to “quadruple” the pay of police retirees if he becomes president.

In a Twitter post on Monday, Lacson added: “It may be good to inform the retirees though that we’ve requested the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and PNP to submit to the Senate actual numbers to validate DBM’s (Department of Budget and Management) claim that at least Php5T (trillion) seed money is needed to fund the program.”

During Monday’s flag raising ceremony at Camp Crame, Dela Rosa promised to raise police retirees’ pay if he becomes chief executive of the country.

“Kung ako masunod, triple. Sabihan niyo mga retirees, ‘Hintayin niyo maging Presidente si Bato.’ Gagawin kong quadruple mga sweldo niyo,” the PNP chief said.

READ: Bato to retirees: I’ll quadruple your salaries when I’m president

Dela Rosa also denied some retirees’ complaint that they are being left out of the Duterte administration’s salary increase program for the police force.

Dela Rosa further announced during the flag raising ceremony that policemen with a rank of Police Office 1 (PO1) would have their salaries doubled starting January 2018.

READ: Rookie cops’ pay to increase 100% by January 2018

/kga