Citing the need to provide due recognition and to show gratitude to the Philippines’ former leaders for their services, ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Samuel Pagdilao Jr. said retired presidents should continue to receive an annual pension equivalent to their basic salaries.
House Bill 4450, or the Retired Presidents’ Protection Act, seeks such benefit for former presidents as their “role as moral voice of the nation will continue” even long after they retired from government sevice, Pagdialo said in the bill’s explanatory note.
Under HB 4450, the pension shall be paid monthly by the Office of the President to the former head of state.
The bill defines “a retired president” as one who has completed his or her full term of office, the person who has served more than four years as the president’s successor, and the individual who resigns as president before his or her official term expires provided that he or she had not been removed from office or forced to resign due to impeachment.
Meanwhile, under the 47-year-old Republic Act 5059, former presidents are only entitled to a tax-free life pension of P40,000 each year.
Also, RA 5059 bans impeached presidents or those who assume another government post after stepping down from the presidency from receiving pension.
Pension transfer
In the event of a former president’s death, HB 4450 provides that the government should ensure the spouse will continue receiving the pension, but only if the spouse waives the right to any other pensions.
Also, HB 4450 provides that the pension will be terminated on the last day of the month before a surviving spouse dies, remarries, or holds an appointive or elective position in the government.
Dignified retirement
The proposed legislation will also give a former President the means to have a “dignified retirement” since the pension and other benefits he or she will receive will be enough for him or her not to engage in another occupation “that might demean or commercialize the office he or she once had,” Pagdialo said.
Aside from the pension, the bill also authorizes the Office of the President to provide transition benefits, which should be requested by the retired leader not more than six months after his or her term in office.
Transition benefits in HB 4450 include: suitable office space appropriately equipped with furniture, office machines and equipment, compensation for members of office staff designated by the retired president; and payment for the procurement of services of consultants at a rate not to exceed those as set by the Office of the President.
The State will also be required to pay for the travel expenses and subsistence allowances of the retired president provided that such travel shall relate to his or her duties as representative of the country, as well as for the communications services found necessary by the former head of state.
Retired presidents, their spouses and their children under 18 years old shall also be entitled to reasonable but adequate security from the Presidential Security Group. — Xianne Arcangel /LBG, GMA News
