DOJ points finger at DBM, GSIS after ex-employee dies without getting pension

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday said it was not to blame in the case of a 66-year-old former prosecutor in Negros Occidental who died without receiving his retirement pay. In a statement, Undersecretary Leah Armamento, chairperson of the Retirement Committee Technical Working Group, insisted the DOJ was "not amiss in attending" to the retirement pay application of acting Cadiz City Prosecutor Marcelo del Pilar. Del Pilar, who was in government service for almost four decades, died of a heart attack last April 4, after a two-year-long battle to secure his pension. According to earlier reports, 100 other prosecutors who retired in 2011 have still not received their lump sum pension. Del Pilar suffered heart attacks in 2007 and 2010, and was advised by his doctor to undergo a heart bypass. Without money for the operation, Del Pilar wrote to Vice President Jejomar Binay, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, and President Benigno Aquino III for his lump sum pension, but all to no avail. On Thursday, Armamento said: "His situation represents an area of concern and the Department is doing everything to convince Department of Budget Management (DBM) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to release the retirement benefits of retired prosecutors." Armamento asked the DBM and the GSIS to sign a joint circular that addresses the benefits of retired prosecutors. For her part, DBM Director Tina Rose Marie Canda said her agency's request for the issuance of Special Allotment Release Order amounting to P397,384,560 has already been "resubmitted to the DBM." The release order was supposed to cover retirement gratuity for prosecutors who retired from 2010 to 2012, Canda added. The joint DBM-GSIS circular was crafted pursuant to Republic Act 10071 of an Act Strengthening and Rationalizing the National Prosecution Service. Enacted on April 8, 2010, RA 10071 provides updated schemes in terms of retirement benefits for prosecutors, as provided under Section 21 of the law. — BM, GMA News