Pattern MUP pension after state workers fund – GSIS head

by Jun 7, 2023Featured Article, News

MANILA, Philippines — As the government scrambles to reform the pension system for military and uniformed personnel (MUP) to avert a fiscal crisis, the state-controlled Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has suggested that it simply replicate the current premium contribution structure for state workers.

GSIS President Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso said the MUP system must be aligned with the contribution rate payable by GSIS members and their government employers, amounting to 9 percent and 12 percent, respectively, of the actual monthly salary of the contributing member.

“This is to be consistent with everyone else in the government,” Veloso said in an interview with the Inquirer. “That is the most logical, if you are going to have a basis, it [should] be the rest of the government.”

However, Veloso said it was ultimately up to Congress to structure the MUP pension system.

A Senate measure seeking to reform the MUP retirement scheme has been submitted to a technical working group for discussions, with representatives from the government’s economic team and the uniformed services being consulted on the matter.

Resistance

“It’s not for us to decide. We are just the managers so we have nothing to discuss regarding the contribution, on whether it will be grandfathered,” Veloso said, referring to another proposal that whatever structure would be introduced should be applicable only to incoming MUPs.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier favored GSIS’s participation in the multisectoral discussions on the MUP pension reform, noting that its experience and acquired skills “have been an important part of this ongoing process.”

The current MUP pension system covers retirees from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine Public Safety College, and the bureaus of jail management and penology, of fire protection, and of corrections.