PVAO chief hopes for passage of bill giving P20k monthly pension to WWII veterans

The Administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office on Thursday said they are hoping that the House bill pushing for a monthly pension of P20,000 for World War II veterans, many of them in their 90s, gets the green light so they could benefit from it before passing on.

PVAO chief Ernesto Carolina told GMA News Online he is seeking the passage of the bill this year so it could be included in the 2019 budget.

“We hope within this year ma-pass yung law so that by 2019 budget, kasama na 'yan, inaapura namin dahil nga namamatay na yung karamihan,” Carolina said.

House Bill No. 270 was filed by Bataan 1st District Representative Geraldine Roman in 2016 and cleared the veterans affairs and welfare committee a few months after. A check with the House panel revealed the bill was referred to the Committee on Appropriations on February 21, 2017.

Appropriations committee secretary Elena Ramos told GMA News Online the bill has not budged due to issues on how it would be funded.

But Carolina said the Department of Budget and Management has already “certified availability of funds.”

Regardless of whether they fought in WWII or after, veterans currently receive an average monthly pension of P6,700, and their medication and hospitalization expenses are also reimbursed by the government, said Carolina.

The government allocates P10 billion for war veterans' pension every year, he said.

Carolina said there are around 7,000 living WWII veterans who fought in the Philippines, now living in the country or in the United States, but that they are dying at a rate of 300 per month.

He also claimed “100 percent” of the veterans receive their pensions, and so do “theoretically 100 percent” of surviving spouses, even despite a concern raised by a veteran’s descendant at a news forum in Quezon City, where Carolina served as a speaker.

According to community newspaper publisher Mary Jane Olvina-Balaguer, her 98-year-old grandmother, the wife of a deceased former guerilla, has not received pension due her by law since her husband’s death in 2002.

Olvina-Balaguer claimed PVAO officers said her grandmother, Marcela Valenzuela-Enriquez, who had been married to a guerilla named Carlos D.S. Enriquez, does not have records in its system.

But this puzzled the publisher, saying her grandfather had received benefits while he was alive and even got a burial cheque upon death.

In response, Carolina described the case as “unusual,” reckoning the 98-year-old widow may have a “legal problem,” or an issue with her documentary requirements.

“Bigay mo sa akin kaagad ang pangalan. Unusual ‘yan, kasi by law pag namatay ang beterano, we transfer the pension to the surviving spouse,” he told Olvina-Balaguer.

“That is a very small percentage. Generally, yung mga surviving spouses ng World War II veterans, and even the other veterans, ‘yung Korean, nakaka-prioritize yun. ‘Yung very few na wala, may legal problem yan,” he added.

The administrator advised her to re-file her grandmother’s documents. When followed up, Olvina-Balaguer said she would. — RSJ, GMA News