FB: Romeo V Poquiz
5 April 2023
Rejoinder to Sec. Diokno on Military Retirement Pay:
05 April 2023
Subject: Military Pension
To: Dr. Benjamin E. Diokno
Secretary, Department of Finance
DOF Building, BSP Complex
Roxas Boulevard
Manila
Dear Secretary Diokno,
Please allow me to respond to your assertions on the MUP pension system.
1. You said the pension scheme is ridiculous because personnel in the active service can optionally retire after completing 20 years of service and receive pension for 50 years because they live up to 90.
The pension scheme is not ridiculous but your assertion is. That pension benefit you refer to was vested by law. Pension after 20 years of service, once approved by the competent authority, is the norm even in most foreign militaries. Also, living up to 90 is a blessing and pensioners must not be faulted for it. Discipline explains it.
2. You compared military pensions with those of civilians, where military men do not contribute to it while civilians do.
Your comparison is wrong. The military is a service where one’s life is the capital, 24 hours a day, in war or in peace. In fact, it is not termed pension in the AFP retirement law. It is called Military Retirement Pay. When they retire, they are only placed on the Retired List and may be recalled back to active service during war or other national contingencies. Also, almost all militaries around the world, including those in the USA, do not contribute to their pension.
3. You said that pension indexation, where the retiree's pension increases when the salary of those in the active service increases, must be stopped.
Why pick only the military or MUP? Indexation is also the case for pensioners in the Judiciary (judges and prosecutors), the Constitutional Commissions (Comelec, COA, CSC), and the Energy Regulatory Commission. This is also the practice in most foreign armed forces. Further, we waited decades before the full implementation of indexation and it was only a couple of years back when the indexation was finally completed.
4. You said the MUP pension scheme is unsustainable and will lead to fiscal collapse. Again, why pick on us only? As finance manager and as the highest-paid government official, it is your duty to explore all available options to solve the problem. You can start by returning most of your unconscionable P41.81 million annual salary, allowances, and bonuses, including those of your BSP colleagues. The law fixed your salary only at P150,000 monthly or P1.8 million annually, yet you received P41.81 million.
You can also stop the pork barrel allocations of lawmakers and go after corrupt officials in all the departments as well as revenue agencies BIR and Customs. Further, improve the business climate in the country so that your touted investors in your many foreign travels may finally come and do business in the country.
5. You said we receive huge pensions compared to SSS and GSIS and that the scheme stipulates we get pensions based on the rate of the next higher rank when we retire. Again, no point of comparison between military and civilian retiree entitlements. Also, you must have missed the gargantuan pensions aside from the huge salary and allowances plus golden parachutes of high SSS and GSIS officials. Much more for you and your colleagues at the BSP who all belong to the top ten highest paid government officials but only do minimal work in the comfort and safety of your fully air-conditioned suites or offices. Further, the MUP pension is very small when compared to the international armed forces standards.
You brought out the elephant in the room, Mr. Secretary. Go then, do your job, without opening your mouth too much, and without picking a fight with us retirees. Even in the twilight of our lives, we fight our battles well.
Sincerely,
Military Pensioner
(Ctto - Romeo V Poquiz)
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Dated 1 April 2023
Reducing the pension benefits of Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUP) is a sensitive issue, taken personally, by active and retired personnel of the AFP, PNP, and other armed services. They will not take this sitting down.
I gently but strongly advise government officials talking about the issue to watch their words and be rational in their actions. This is especially so for the main proponent of the reduction, Secretary Benjamin Dikno who is the highest paid official at P41.81 million in one year. Publicly saying that the current MUP pension entitlement is ridiculous adds fuel to the building fire.
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30 March 2023
If there will be war between the US and China over Taiwan, it was not because China initiated it, but the US did. China, despite its warning to use force if necessary to unify China, will not actually do it. That “bullying” is just a tactic to emphasize its point and gather points for future negotiations.
China will derive more benefits in the unification if Taiwan is intact and not destroyed. This is also in keeping with Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu’s strategy of winning a war without firing a shot, which is being practiced by the Chinese government. In fact, China does not use arms to dominate other countries. It subtly and slowly uses trade to do so.
While the public is bombarded with news reports, which are in fact western propaganda, that China will invade Taiwan soon, the US has actually more reasons to start the war.
First, a war will be a convenient cover-up of its impending financial collapse caused by bank failures, impending loss of the US dollar as the global reserve currency, and its huge, unpaid, and continuously ballooning debts ($31.4 trillion).
Second, a war will be a reason for the US not to pay those debts, almost a trillion of which is held by China, and $48.3 billion held by the Philippines.
Third, a war will generate revenues for the US arms industry thus helps revive its faltering economy.
The saddest, most unfortunate, and most tragic matter in the war: Due to its strategic location, the Philippines will be dragged into the war, if not act as its proxy, whether it likes it or not - by the US, of course.
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